AN ARTIFICIAL TAIL-PIPE JOB!

AN ARTIFICIAL TAIL-PIPE JOB! (Mother Jones)

Just when I thought it was safe to go for nice summer rides with my wife and dog and enjoy lower gasoline prices at the pump, I read an article about "artificially cheap" gas prices in  Monday's Mother Jones edition. Gas here in Wisconsin, at my favorite "filling station" is less then $3.69 a gallon, and reportedly will continue to fall from a high of $4.09 just 30 days ago.

I'm happy, life is good, and I can start planning all sorts of little "side trips" to Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, until I read the Mother Jones article, and everything changes. I discover that gasoline has hidden per gallon costs. "Wait a ding dong minute," is that legal, I mean how in the world can petroleum companies take away my feelings of bliss, contentment and a sense of adventure, "with regards to my side trips."

The short answer is "of course (they) can," "although everybody referrers to them as (they), I have never fully understood who (they) are." Anyways the "powers that be" can give me another tail-pipe job whenever (they) want. Its now in the form of behind the scenes invisible costs that impact us all and for reasons that I didn't know about, and had never considered.....bummer.

Crude oil this morning, June 20th. 2011 is a little over $91 a barrel, so gas at the pumps should be going down, like it has been for several weeks, right....."well, not necessarily." Some experts argue the "external costs of  lower gasoline prices at the pimps. pumps," compared with other industrialized countries, the U.S. has it cheap. Funny, it doesn't feel that way to me.

I really can't figure out why we need to be compared with other countries, is that supposed to make us, me, feel better, "I don't see how." These "experts" talk about Europeans paying more then $8 for a gallon of gas, "great, I feel better already." Europeans are taking it up the tail-pipe, just like U.S. citizens, albeit harder because they pay more per gallon.

The tail-pipe thing was never meant to be a comparison of the the U.S. and other countries, any other countries. If people in England, Germany and France like getting screwed at the gasoline pumps, that is their business, I for one, in the U.S. don't  like it one little bit.

Now I find out that there are "hidden" costs for gas that I don't even know about.....great, that really makes my day. All sorts of experts site turmoil in the Middle East, explaining disparity in prices across the Atlantic. Politicians on Capital Hill banter back and fourth across the aisle on why, how and the justice of unstable oil prices and their ultimate effect on the average American citizen.

Across the Midwest, during the summer-time, gasoline firms routinely  implement clean air governmental  regulations with costly additives that have, in the past, drove up the price at the pumps. This year however, for whatever reason, gasoline prices are falling, maybe it was that artificially inflated $4.09 cent a gallon price in April.

Other gas prices that are hidden from public view, those that most of us never think about, and some don't even know exist, like treatment for asthma, lost work days, lost school days for kids, old folks illnesses with regards to respiratory decease and premature deaths.

In California, the average cost per person for these related deceases, lost days and deaths adds up to as much as $1600 per person. Across the nation, depending on the area that you live, figures range from $100 to $500.

Food and fiber crops can be effected, as much as 10%,  by carbon pollution through the burning of fossil fuels. Soybeans, wheat,  oats, green beans, peppers and some types of cotton can be effected by the Greenhouse gasses that are produced especially by gasoline and diesel fuels.

The cost of oil spills is also factored into the price of a gallon of gas, and I'm not talking about the Gulf of Mexico either. There are thousands of "mini" oil spills every year that never make headlines, but non-the-less create problems that can be just as toxic as the Gulf spill for small areas.

Over the last 3 decades, the EPA has cleaned up more then 401,000 leaking underground gasoline storage tanks, with another 93,000 more sites awaiting clean-up. The agency spends between $2-3 million dollars every year for clean-ups on tribal land and has set aside $66.2 million dollars for additional clean-up.

All I can say about these artificially cheap gasoline prices is that we'd better all "pucker up butter cup" cause the gas nozzle is just around the corner. 

A DEFLECTIVE ACTION! (Green Bay Press Gazette)

Picture it, "you stop for gas and discover that you have to pre-pay inside, or use a  credit card at the pump. You no longer can pump your gas and go inside to pay for it." Soon it will be the law in Green Bay, and I for one am nervous, if we allow the Green Bay city council to pass such an ordnance.

Let me count the ways that I feel this is wrong:

1. Gas station operators don't need the city council dictating the manner in which payment is received.

2. Business does not need protection from the city of Green Bay.

3. It is a further power grab by government over independent business.

4. Police say that the ordinance is needed city wide because without it, stations will be inconsistent in their usage of the policy, huh!

What's next, clean under ware cops running around giving atomic wedgies, then checking for "hash marks."

PITT BULLED OVER!

PITT BULLED OVER! (Frazer Chronicles)

I suppose I should go slow on this subject, since my son-in-law is a lover of Pitt Bulls, but it's difficult for me to trivialize the number of deaths attributed Pitt Bull type dog attacks every year. There is absolutely no getting around the fact that Pitt Bulls are some of the most beautiful of dog species that we humans have domesticate. The several different types of Pitt offspring have magnificent features, unique to that breed, making ownership, initially, an advantages criteria for dog lovers. Me personally, I like my dogs, short, fat, close to the ground, docile and willing to lay around, eat, and take naps.

From my kind of dog, we must make a leap to an animal in the dogie kingdom that is so different from my wife's Chihuahua, that there's not any sense in making comparisons, there aren't any. Missy is a fat little drum with 4 legs, a snout and tail. Yes she nips.....at the ankles and barks to let us know whenever anybody is walking down the sidewalk, but that's as far as her watchdog skills go.

She does run our household, letting us know when she needs a pee break, or that poop walk for the other. She barks when she needs food, water, or for attention. She does not take kindly to visitors, nips at kids, and generally lets us know that she doesn't appreciate it when we have guests over, or for that matter her sisters and brother, "our kids."

Could she inflict much damage on anybody, absolutely not, if she was a cause for that concern, she would no longer be a member of our family, she is a pet, an animal and really an extensive of how my wife and I are. If she hurt somebody, she would be on the first train out of the Frazer mansion.

People own all kinds of dogs for all  kinds of reasons, be it companionship, a guard dog, for medical reasons and for show. There are two more reasons why people own dogs and sadly it usually is because the owner needs a boost in his man-hood, or that somebody has a sadistic attitude and wants to train fighting dogs, or attack dogs.

A 75 year old women is in critical condition today in a San Diego, California hospital after her neighbor's 2 Pit Bulls attacked the women in her own back yard. The women was bitten repeatedly on her legs and arms until her husband chased the animals out of their yard.

The county Department of Animal Control confiscated and euthanized the animals shortly after the attack. The attack happened Saturday morning and is just one more example of what can happen when people harbor animals that actually have no business being held by anybody as domesticated pets.

Pet Bulls are dangerous, they always have been and always will be, at least that is the way I've always felt. I have always been at a loss to understand why people would want to own animals that are dangerous, they hold no practical purpose, at least to me. The certainly attack strangers, they attack friends, they attack children and they attack their owners.

You are not impressing me, if you own a Pit Bull, I hope you don't have kids, many friends and live somewhere way out in the sticks so that when your "pet" strikes, you are the only one involved, and die a slow, terrible death, because your an idiot.

I read a Pit Bull Lovers website and came away with some beautiful  examples of total denial, unless the guy is also an idiot. A 14 month old baby was mauled to death by the family Pit Bull when it "snapped" and attacked while the mother was feeding the baby. This joker said that the "attack didn't have to happen, that the owners missed aggressive signs and that the owners didn't reinforce that the attack mauling action was in-appropriate, "what." 

Irresponsible owners are to blame, while others make their dogs mean on purpose, because they are cruel, irresponsible and mean people. The solution to Pit Bull attacks is to get rid of all the irresponsible mean people, and those people that do not follow breeding regulations. There needs to be "breeding wardens" that register all Pit Bull breeding's and inspect kennels.

Public and Pit Bull community awareness classes, "if you want a Pitt Bull, rescue an adult." If you want the public to know that Pit Bulls aren't all baby killers, train them, title them, and take them out to public gatherings were dogs are welcome.

Become an advocate for Pit Bulls, show non-owners that it's the owners and not the Pit Bulls that are responsible for all attacks. That is the jest of the Pit Bull advocates website, and although, according to the United States Constitution, "everybody has the right to his own opinion, and can freely speak it," this guy needs to take his doggies into a dry dark room where they stay together for several weeks until the dogs get the message, and do their thing.

The Center for Decease and Control Prevention keeps statistics, "as best they can" with regards to dog death count, want some sobering figures, read on:

A. Since 2005, 178 deaths have been attributed to dog attacks

B. 100 from infants to 10 years of age

C. Between ages 11-60, 37 deaths

D. 61 and over, 41 deaths

E. Of the 178 deaths, 104 have been Pit Bull type dogs.

I believe it's time for us all, like the Pitt Bull advocate said, "to educate ourselves" and get rid of all Pit Bull type dogs in the United States. If my Missy dog hurt anybody, she would have a real short funeral.

PALIN IS NOT IN THE 8TH. GRADE!

PALIN IS NOT IN THE 8TH. GRADE! (Mother Jones)

I read a ridiculous article that compared Sarah Palin to an 8th. grader, just because her Emails writing wasn't the  best, or "up to snuff." Gees I write like that everyday, "on an 8th. grade level" and get away with it, "maybe people are making allowances for me," if so, "thanks."

Sarah Palin has compared herself to a Momma Grizzly, and that analogy,  I find offensive. Have you ever been up close and personal with a bear, "they stink" are ill tempered and completely unpleasant. Maybe a deer, a raccoon or a squirrel, but a stinky old bear, come on Sarah, "think outside the box."

The huge cache of Sarah Palin's emails that have been released offered not only a chance to see what she was writing about as Alaska's governor, but also an opportunity to see how well her composition, spelling and subject content was.

Experts read several of the thousands of the emails and came away convinced that Ms. Momma Grizzly was operating at little more then an 8th. grade level. According to their analogy, "many CEO's operate at little better then an 8.5 grade level. That might explain why the country is in the tank at this juncture.

I love to bash the former Alaskan governor as much as possible, she continues to give great subject matter for pundits like me. She seems to be going along her merry way, not caring how people perceive her activity, what she says, or for that matter how she looks. She seems to be free and easy, with an agenda all her own.

I guess I have always wondered why it is so important for the U.S. to have a Rhodes Scholar to operate as the leader. With few exceptions, the countries leaders have been well educated people, with degrees coming out of their butts, mostly law degrees. Exactly where has all this education gotten us, let me count the ways:

1. a never ending series of wars

2. an economy that seems in the tank

3. between 40 and 60 million uninsured health care citizens with nowhere to go

4. underfunded social security program for those 65 and over

5. a 50 year old infrastructure that is crumbling at the same time throughout the country

6. a power grid that is falling apart

7. bridges that are unsafe all over the country

That is what highly intellectual people have done for the country, and the general population bares the brunt of the responsibility for the problem. The general electorate has taken the feeble idea that "college degrees equate into sound leaders with good decision making skills." We all know that is untrue, but we continue to elect the same tired lot of leaders.

I don't like Sarah Palin, I think that she is a fake, enamored with herself, and is far worse then a Momma Grizzly, she is a devious politician, in the game only for herself and as she continues along her merry way, she actually begins to believe what she is spiting out, which is the worst part.

She may write at an 8th. grade level, but her mentality is that of a time old perception of what a political figure is, deceptive, cunning and power hungry. 

SEX AT 85, WHAT A RUSH

SEX AT 85, WHAT A RUSH! (Washington Post)
Okay, picture it, "a guy celebrating his 21st. birthday, a girl ready to give the ultimate gift of love, and a 3rd. guy in the car watching....."watching what I'm not sure," and a car going down the highway at 85 miles an hour." Sounds juicy doesn't, well wait just a minute, it gets better, much better.

I must admit that during my time, "which is over," I have enjoyed the titillation of sex in many places, times and situations. Readers must remember, I'm the one and only inventor of the "Pretzel Hold" a very provocative position in sexual pleasuring.

There a 2 things that dumbfounds me about my newest hero.....okay, he was going 85 miles an hour, I get that, but what I don't get is the fact, "according to the police report," the guy was in the back seat, apparently having sex, if true, this act of sex completely destroys the Pretzel Holds number one ranking in positions for sex.

The number 2 thing that totally flabbergasts me is the fact that when pressed, nobody in the car actually admitted that they were driving. I can understand the 21 year old not driving, being engaged with the women, but when the guy in the front seat did not admit to driving, well.....I just don't get it, somebody had to be driving the dam car.

The end result was that the "sex on wheels" car slammed into a Taxi Cab, causing extensive damage to both cars, and a lawsuit brought by the Cab driver. Tickets were issued for reckless endangerment to the 21 year old guy and the trial begins next week in Fairfax County Virginia. We here at Chronicle headquarters will follow the results of the trial.


BAGGY PANTS FOOTBALL PLAYER CUT FROM FLIGHT! (Fox Sports on MSN)
Everybody has seen kids running around wearing those baggy pants that seem to be down around their ankles with their boxer shorts covering the vital areas of their anatomy, and like must everybody, I've thought "what the hell is holding the dam things up?" Although nobody has ever told me, I finally have heard about an action that can be taken to eradicate the unsightly eye-sore.

But first lets take a quick look at why anybody would want to wear a pair of pants that look, for all intense and purposes like they are about ready fall to at least  the knee. I have talked to several people, black, white and brown, I wanted to eliminate any   racial profiling right out of the box.

What I was told, emphatically  that the wearing of the sloppy, bagging pants was nothing more then a fashion statement, was not a rebel stance, or a status thing. I came away with the knowledge that the baggy attire was nothing more then a phase that kids were going through, and it would soon be replaced with some other outlandish garb that the marketing executives of the fashion world would push.

U.S. Airways solved the baggy pants issue once and for all, when an airlines employee noticed that DeShon Marman's pants were below his buttocks. I for one have never been embarrassed and offended by a kid walking around in baggy pants, below his buttocks, with his underwear showing. That was not the case for the female U.S. Airways official.

Apparently the airline has a dress code that takes, "no shoes, no shirt, no service" to a new level. The airline dress code must read something like "no shoes, no shirt and no potential butt cracks allowed."  Marman and the female U.S. Air employee, it seems stubbornly refused to back off from their opinions, police were called, and the football player was carted off to jail to await legal action.

The only thing that I can say is that "the cloths Cops need to ratchet down a bit, their perceived authority stance." The kid was not hurting anybody, and there were no complaints from any of the passengers, what harm was the kid doing.

A U.S. Airways spokeswomen said that the airline's dress code forbids indecent exposure or inappropriate attire. To me, this is a blatant attempt to take a person's civil rights away, I mean who the hell is to determine what is appropriate and inappropriate, what if somebody  is having a bad day, or is sexually challenged. What is our world coming to, what a waste of time, and possibly taxpayers money.

All I know is the next time I fly, I won't be wearing my Zomba's, they got a hole  in the back, near my buttock.

THE WORST OF THE POLARIZED AGENTS, (Washington Post)
Charles Krauthhammer is at it again, the Fox newsie contributor, Washington Post and Weekly Standard columnist is now talking about the union-owned Democratic Party and President Obama. There are many things wrong with the Democratic Party, but one of them is not schmoozing up to unions, what for, unions have lost most of their power.

Union authority and power has wained badly in the United States over the past 30 years, that it's just a shadow of it's former self.  Maybe Krauthammer missed it, but states around the country are in full attack on unions, their membership, and their ability to organize with almost any voice at all. Unions were formed in the United States for very good reasons, first and foremost to protect workers in the work place.

If management hadn't used the rules by which they operated, unions would have been unnecessary. The initial issues was worker safety, shorter work days and weeks, and better pay. Before 1937 many a worker saw his work-week last 6 days, 12 hours a day. If you were injured, you were tossed aside and a new worker took your place.



Of course unions  went to extremes, demanding benefits that  could never, in the long term, be honored. Negotiators had to know this as did the unions, yet ridiculous settlements between unions and management were met and we now seen the aftermath.

Unions are a necessity of American labor, without their protection, labor would revert to pre-1937 and that would be a terrible plight, not only for America's workers, but for the very fabric of the country. At the present time, most relationships between labor and management has a respectful relationship, but a big part of that relationship is do to union influence.

I understand Krauthammer's debilitating condition, and I am in awe of what he has done with his life and the productivity that has defined his life. But Charles, look at both sides before you bandy around your opinions so freely, think of both issues, both sides.

  

WHY I BLOGG

WHY I BLOG, (Frazer Chronicles)
An honest question that I suppose many of you loyal readers ask, and like those slick guys that give testimony in front of Congress, I'll answer the question the same as they do, "I'm glad you asked that question." Actually they aren't, but I am."

Without some sort of interested readership, my blog would be nothing more then a study in futility, you see, I do write my blog so that people might think a little bit outside their world. I hope that just a few readers are stroked to think just a bit more.  If that happens, my mission has been accomplished.

When I list a news organization after my intro headline, I am not  plagiarizing a news article, I am using the paper's article as a "jumping off point," I am read several differing views of the article, put all the different views together in one story line and add my own opinions. That mostly is how reporting is done today, multiple views condensed into one story. I know that is how history is written.

I take news items from all sorts of news organizations, liberal, conservative, foreign and completely crazy, and also the less news worthy. I try to tickle my readers thinking process, because when you can't see the value of other points of view, even if you don't agree, your mind is locked down, and "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."


A STRANGE TALE OF DOWNSIZING, (Huffington Post)
I watched a decent movie the other night, The Company Men with a star studded cast, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T Nelson and Maria Bello. The "meat" of the story line was that Affleck, Cooper and Jones each were fired from their executive jobs from a ship building company owned by, who else, Craig T Nelson, who can play the hell out of a character that everybody loves to heat. I have listed  Maria Bello character simply for chauvinistic reasons, "she has a great body," and I'm in love with her.

Anyways, as these men lose their jobs, their lives begin to spiral out of control, except Tommy Lee Jones, who is older, and has made much better money decision then either Affleck or Cooper, Cooper in fact commits suicide near the end of the movie.

The movie focuses on the younger Affleck and his struggles to somehow regain his prestige as a top salesmen, and get back to his salary of $160,000 a year. He loses his house, his sports car, his golf course club membership and has to move in with his parents.

In the end, to me, the movie isn't so much about the tragedy of loss, rather the triumph of the human spirit, the ingenuity of man and the lengths he will go to reinvent himself. By movie's end, Jones has begin a new company, hiring many of the downsized employees that lost their jobs through Craig T Nelson's downsizing procedures.

I have one more down sizing story that is not ever going to be made into a motion picture. It's a story about a person working in a Midwest setting, for a city in Wisconsin. For the past 10 years, this person has received graduated raises amounting to about 3% every other year through contract negotiations. During these same 10 years, health insurance has gone up, every 2 years about 4%, leaving a negative 1% in her paycheck, not much until you consider the cost of living, which goes up by at least 3% every 2 years, the contracts covering 10 years represents a total loss of 5%.

Couple the 5% loss in a paycheck with the downsizing in her department, where retired workers are not replaced, or employees shifting to other departments means that those that are left have to assume new responsibilities without any form of monetary compensation, and finally when the department director quites and the office manager retires, neither are replaced and more of the work load is dumped on the remaining people.

The directors pay was in excess of $70,000 while the office manager was paid more then $58,000, one can see that by not replacing either, the city would save more then $120,000 in pay alone, even before benefits were factored in.

In the private sector, things are even worse, executive pay over the past 10 years has soared, while the everyday stiff who punches a time-clock see a paycheck that remains, at best stagnate. It's a glorious day to be an American worker, if your an executive, the great recession is a distant memory, your pay is skyrocketing and leaders in Washington are putting labor concerns at the front and center of their agendas.....if you are a worker who happens to be at the top of the corporate organizational ladder.

Executive pay in American, since 2009 is up a whopping 40%, as some of these dudes are pulling down 6, 8, 10, and even $20,000,000 a year. How in hell can a person get paid  millions of dollars a year and still threaten to "move on" to another company if they don't get a raise. Talk about a different tax bracket, and off shore accounts, where do these guys stuff their money, and more, how the hell do they spend it?

One of these top executive, Jeffrey Immelt, Chief of General Electrics, who pulled down a whopping $15,000,000 last year, has now been tapped by President Obama to help generate American jobs. How the hell can somebody that makes $15 million dollars a year understand what it's like to not have enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes, or a six pack of Budweiser, or worse, how to make his mortgage payment? The short answer, "he can't," and the long answer, "he has no clue."

You might ask how Immelt's

How do most Americans feel about this state of affairs, "pretty dammed unappreciated." Wages in 2011 sit roughly at the same place they did at the beginning of 1980, after adjusting for inflation. Several caveats go into absorbing this data, among them, that millions of women and millions of immigrant workers have entered the workforce, tending to pull down wages. No matter how a person views this information, one glaring truth emerges,  "the breakdown of the American middle class opportunity."

Lots of people have tended to their business, gotten up every morning, gone off to work, brought as much money as they could home, and still found themselves sliding backwards. The sad part for these people is that they have been doing the same thing for the past 30 years. They now find themselves in their 50's with few options if they lose their jobs.

This silly notion of re-education for 50 something year old people is some bureaucratic "chuckle heads" pipe dream. Sure some people are willing to take advantage of the service, yet the vast majority simply drift off into some sort of work after-life, working at whatever can bring them and their families some sort of life.

I could continue with this malady of  pay disparity, company down-sizing and the bleak outlook of our economy and the future of our country, but I won't bore you and waste your time. When banks  loaned money to pathetically poor risks, when executives were rewarded for these risky loans, then had to be bailed out because they ran out of money, when mortgage brokers wrote loans to anybody capable of holding a pen, and were paid obscene commissions, and when banks started betting that the very loans that they were writing would fail, only one thing could happen, and here we are, broke.

We now come down to it, our fearless leaders, the Obama administration and his seeming out of touch attitude with the voters of the country. I for one don't care how cool our leader looks or is, how unattached he appears is what gets me. Get involved, quite pontificating, and get some things done before its to late.


IS THAT BONER OR BOEHNER? (New York Times)
I remember graphically when George W. Bush declared war on almost any Muslim who moved in the Middle-East, I was worried then and I'm worried now. As our country continues to move ever closer to the abyss of financial ruin, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have a new hero in President Obama.

President Obama has continued wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but has now joined with almost every other president since the turn of the twentieth century, in creating his own war, Libya. The White House continues to defend America's role in the Libya military campaign.

In a 38 page report sent to lawmakers describing and defending the NATO-led operation, the White House said the mission is "prying loose Qaddafi's grip on power." I have but one thing to say about that statement, "who cares." I personally could give a crap about the Libyans plight, I am way past caring about some dry desert country with Texas tea under ground. I personally can get alone without it.

I agree with John Boehner and his demand that President Obama explain his legal justification  for passing the deadline of 60 to 90 days after notifying Congress that troops had been deployed into hostilities, unless Congress authorizes the operation to continue.

In this case, John Boehner is being.....well, Boehner, and President Obama is being a "boner."  It has cost the Pentagon more then $716 million dollars so far and by September the estimated cost will be over a billion dollars. The War Powers Resolution is a safeguard for Presidents not to make war on their own, without a voice from Congress.

Do you know how sick and tired I am with regards to America continuing to be the worlds most war making people on the face of the planet, well let me count the ways:
A. War kills people, our people.
B. War costs money, tax payer money.
C. I become ill thinking about the profiteering  that is being done by American industry.
D. I am sick and tired calling our countries war department, "the Pentagon."
E. I am sick and tired of the President and his advisers setting this countries foreign policies.
F. I am sick and tired of the lies that are coming from our elected officials with regards to war.
G. I am sick and tired of people going to bed at night hungry, right here in the United States, when we are giving food away to foreigners.
H.  I am sick and tired of our government giving foreigners free health care, when right here in America, we have a health care crisis.

I could go on, but you'd stop reading. In this case, I hope John Boehner gets the answers that we all need with the continuing war making policies that keep coming out of the White House. Do you realize that it's been more then 10 years of war making, and were no further ahead, then when we started. W. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would be proud.

  

     

TICKLISH POCKET SEARCH COULD MEAN JAIL!

TICKLISH POCKET SEARCH COULD MEAN JAIL, (The Root)

Remember the last time you were pushed up against a car, spread eagle, patted down, turned around and directed to "empty your pockets?" Neither can I, I'm white and old, the average cop on the street sees that and figures I'm to old to be doing anything illegal.

Such is the state of affairs in New York city, where blacks and browns are stopped every day because they are black or brown. They aren't waving a weapon out the window, they don't have knives, and they certainly don't have bombs, they are simply black, or brown.

Is it racial profiling.....of course it is, at it's worst, and the result is more then 50,000 arrests every year for illegal drugs. New York has the highest per capita arrest rate for marijuana of any local nationwide. The trend runs counter to what is happening around most of the country, as states begin to legalize small amounts of marijuana.

In New York State, since 1977, 7/8 of an ounce of marijuana has been punishable of a ticket and possibly a $100 fine. But if a person has the marijuana in public view, "as in empty your pockets" a misdemeanor, a criminal offense, punishable with arrest, a fine and as much as three months in jail.

One result of these "ticklish pocket searches" is that young black and brown people, aged 16 to 29 are being duped into publicly revealing their allowable marijuana and then being arrested, thereby gaining a criminal record that will follow them the rest of their lives.

In 2010 New York State had 54,000 marijuana arrests, 50,000 of them in New York City, in neighborhoods that were primarily black, Latino and low income. Do you really think that 50,000 blacks and Latinos in New York City had their weed in plain sight?

It is estimated that the New York City police spend $75 million dollars a year on these type of arrests, even though only a third of the arrests garner guilty verdicts. Marijuana arrests are an easy way for a cop to make his arrest quota, if you believe in that kind of thing, "which I do."

Because the NYPD is the nation's largest police force, often the practices that it follows are often adopted as kind of a national standard and police departments across the country tend to mimic the NYPD's lead, especially in communities of color, and that.....is a ticklish subject.

DID THE INDIANS HAVE IT RIGHT?

DID THE INDIANS HAVE IT RIGHT? (Frazer Chronicles)
In the old days, I mean really old days, like a 150 years ago, many American Indian tribes dealt with sickness, injuries and death in a most efficient way, "at least to their way of thinking," they would take the sickened or injured out into a field, say their goodbyes and leave them to die. Once death came, the critters in the wild would take care of the rest, right down to the bone.

Barbaric you might say, well sure, but a 150 ago, times were barbaric, hell, brother was shooting brother in the Civil War. What, you might ask, is my point, "glad you asked," but first indulge me a bit longer, "I promise it will be interesting."

Medicine in that long ago time consisted of beaver pelts, some beads, a rabbits foot, tree roots and some leaves that looked speciously like marijuana. There wasn't a doctor, rather a tribal medicine man who administered to the medical needs of "his" people. Payment was in animal pelts, horses or women, whatever the medicine man wanted, I suppose.

To cure a head-ache, a hole would be drilled into the temple, the blood would be drawn with a horn type of apparatus out of the head, and the head-ache was either over, or terminal,  talk about "curing or killing." Poultices were used on cuts, arrow or gunshot wounds and in many cases appendages were simply amputated when damaged beyond what the medicine man figured was savable.

Now lets fast forward to the 21st. century and modern day medical procedures and those powers that inhibit that process. It's called (INSURANCE COMPANIES), there are hundreds of insurance companies in the United States, each housed in huge edifices with all the splendor befitting an industry that controls the more then 290 million people's health and well being.

The executives of these companies drive around in big cars with their good looking blond associates, travel in jets around the country and take lavish vacations. At this point I would have to say that, "if I were in one of these exec's positions, I wouldn't want anything changed either," but I'm not, so I want change.

Those people up on Capital Hill who say "health care is in fine shape," are whistling Dixie, they either don't have a clue, or don't care, I personally think it's the latter, "they don't care." There are horror stories about people being rejected for medical procedures by health care companies for various reasons that amount to nothing more then excuses that thinly vale an actuary number that says "30% will either not protest the finding, or die before they can.

Everything in insurance, any kind of insurance, is based on numbers, statistics that are studied by "bean counters" armed with computers and slid rules that spit out all sorts of averages that dictate what insurance companies charge customers, totally based on risk factors of payouts. You don't have to be an Einstein to figure this one out, simply count the payments in, and the procedural costs paid out and you'll come up with a safe figure for the company to make a profit.

Health insurance companies have taken the science of figuring out the money in and the payments out to a whole new place. They decided that medical practicing doctors needed help with their diagnosis, and now routinely reject all sorts of doctor diagnosed medical procedures and in some cases medication. Health insurance companies have their "own" doctors that help them to decide when certain procedures are unnecessary and arbitrarily either say no, or wait several weeks to answer a request.

Premiums for most popular health insurance plans across the United States, since 2000, have risen an astounding 87%. Most employers across the same United States still offer some sort of health plan, but expect the employee to pay more and more of the premium, with a deductible that is either many hundreds of dollars, or thousands. In the meantime, workers earnings have barley risen.

Even though a majority of U.S. employers continue to offer health coverage after a usual waiting period, more and more are completely dropping their health benefits do to the raising costs, it is simply cutting into their profit margins, the reason most are in business in the first place. Some of the raising cost can be justified because of advancing medical technology and newer and better pharmaceutical treatment, causing doctors to spend more on their patients.

As costs raise, as more employers discontinue health care coverage, more and more people are thrown into the uninsured world of health care, where even the simplest of medical care is so expensive that these people can't afford any type of care. This opens up a whole new "can of worms" where people don't go to doctors, don't care for their children's health care and disregard even the most common diseases and  illnesses until they become that they go to the emergency room where treatment cannot be refused.

Here are some sobering statistics that health insurers do not want people to know about, some of you will know about, others won't, but make no mistake, they are germane to today's United States population:
A. Life expectancy in Canada, 79.7 years, France, 79.2 years,  Britain, 78.1 years, U.S. 77.1 years.
B. Infant mortality per 1000 births, France, 4.5, Britain, 5.0, Canada, 5.2, U.S. 6.5.

Britain, Canada and France have nationalized health care plans, as do Afghanistan and Iraq, both Afghanistan and Iraq's health care is paid for by the United States government from some sort of medical fund, with taxpayer money. "Does that tell you anything?"



Maybe the Indians had it right, maybe it's time for me to haul my fat butt into some field, sit down with a book and a jumbo bottle of beer and wait for the end.