"Her Rights, My Wrongs"

What's up with all of these ridiculous posts and protests lately? You know the ones. People up in arms over the loss of women's rights. The ones about how millions are going to die once Obamacare is repealed and/or replaced. Interesting points. 

Now, if you've ever read anything I've written you probably know that I'm about to drop some logic on this. Some of you aren't going to like it. Well here's some exciting news about that: I'm probably not gonna care unless you can give a logical and reasonable debate. So far that's where everyone falters or lapses into supposition and assumption. For the record, I only play the "what if" game with my kids. 

So here's the thing. Women's rights. You didn't lose them. They're still sitting right there along with the house you can own with the money you can earn at the job you're allowed to have. Look at you, all "righted" up and shit. Good on ya, ladies. 

What's that? Oh. It's about abortion rights. Gotcha. My bad. So you're upset because of the Planned Parenthood thing. Yeah, bummer about that, I've known a person or two who use abortion as a form of birth control. Poor girls might be stuck dealing with accountability now. Drats. 

Here's a fun fact: two people were required to make that baby. Where are the men's rights when women abort a child he wanted? 

However, women still didn't lose any rights. I've yet to have anyone list any "rights" women have actually lost. For the record here, although abortion has never been listed as a "right", abortion is still available. No one has outlawed it. You know that, right? 

Look, I don't think abortion should be used as a form of birth control. I know, I know. The mantra is that it's not my body. Fair point. Your body, his shared DNA. Guess what, it IS my tax dollars I don't want spent on it. You had sex without a thought to the outcome, you pay for your own abortion. How's that for fair? Oh. You can't afford it? Then you may wanna look into the millions of people looking to adopt. Problem solved and shit. 

The other rights, what? Equality? Hmm. Let's see. You want equal pay. Ok. For equal work though, right? You know. None of this "but I can't lift as much as these guys, you've gotta make allowances for me because I'm a girl." Oh. Well then I guess you can't lift as big a check as those guys then either. No no. I'm not going to make any special allowances. It's not fair to everyone else. Equal work for equal pay. Bottom line. 

Now.... on to this ridiculous nonsense about the "millions that'll die if Obamacare gets repealed." Cough, cough... bullshit. Let's just start there and make you even more upset as we go. 

Obamacare is a nightmare of failure and lies. Did it help millions get affordable healthcare? Sure. The ones who already qualified for Medicaid and Medicare. Those of us who were already paying for health insurance? Millions either got dropped or had our premiums raise to the point we couldn't afford it. Unless, of course, we switched to a plan with ludicrous deductibles and limitations. 

What do I think the government should do about healthcare? So glad you asked. Nothing. That's what they should do. Nothing except get out of the micromanagement business. Our government wasn't put in place to regulate healthcare. Nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it mention the government needs to get involved. It's simply not in their job description. 

Plus, let's face it, what our government excels at is screwing things up. So we want them in the doctor's office with us now? You sure about that? 

Oh. I see. You think health care should just be free. Gotcha. You know "free" isn't really free, right? You do understand the money has to come from somewhere, don't you? The more "free" shit we have, the higher taxes go. If you work, that is. You want to give your money to the government and let them manage your life? Have you seen the way our government manages things? 

Let them repeal it. Don't replace it. Let insurance companies compete for our business. I assure you the law of supply and demand will lower rates. It's just simple economics. 

"Codependence Day?"

It's Independence Day weekend. A weekend of drinking ourselves stupid and eating obscene amounts of grilled items in celebration of America winning its freedom from England after a bloody revolt. It all started off with a tea party and we've progressed to liquor. 

Hurray for our ancestors, they rebelled against a tyrannical government and taxation without representation. Do you know how high that tax was that finally crossed the line? Zero. It was actually a corporate tax break. However, it was the principle of the laws being passed regarding our governance without our input. 

So there was a revolt. We wanted a system in place in which we could have a voice and not be manipulated. Now, 240 years later, we have a system in place in which we have law makers passing laws without regard to what the populace wants. And they're sitting around getting rich off selling our rights and laws to the highest bidder. Passing laws that don't apply to the law makers. Well done, us, right? 

Don't worry, we didn't forget the manipulation part. We just took that away from the politicians and gave that power to the media. We didn't have cable tv back then but we had the Loyalists Papers who condemned the actions of those who would later be known as Patriots. In fact, even George Washington found it to be vandalism and felt the East India Tea Company should've been compensated. 

So why the tax break? It was a government bailout. The British government was trying to save a large company that was failing. Fortunately, we would never do anything like that now, right? Wait. Crap. Suddenly America's auto industry comes to mind. Ironically, the Treasury Department essentially bought shares with the tax payers' money and ended up turning a $2.4Billion profit off its initial $17.2Billion investment. My money, your money, everyone who's paid taxes. The government made billions of dollars yet none of us received a dividend off the deal. They just pocketed it. Politicians got pay increases. Corporate big wigs got large bonuses and golden parachutes. You and me? Nothing. Not even a thank you from the millionaires we just saved. 

Well that's weird. So our government, without consulting us, invested our money in a private business, turned a profit, and didn't share any of that money with the people it took it from? And the revolution in the 1700's started just because of a tax break. Imagine how those guys would've felt today. Even though the majority of citizens didn't want it, the Affordable Health Care Act passed which forces citizens to purchase products from private companies or be penalized. Both of which are acts directly similar to what caused a war for independence. 

Every day lobbyists are up in Washington greasing palms of greedy politicians so that their agendas can be met. Buying votes and purchasing laws that benefit themselves while not caring what the populace wants or thinks. Bribery, extortion, buying votes. Yep, we've established the very government we rebelled against. 

So we now light fireworks as a symbol of cannon fire and musket fire that were daily occurrences during this battle for independence. We sing the Star Spangled Banner. We grill, drink and party to celebrate the day we "won our independence from a tyrannical government". Provided we get permits and permission from the government we've established who is exponentially more tyrannical that the one we fought against. We fought to govern ourselves rather than be governed by people who were profiting by establishing laws that didn't apply to themselves. Isn't it weird that over time we've slowly allowed a system that is against the very things we fought to establish?

Anyway, go enjoy your weekend. Have a beer and blow up a mailbox or two. Let's not think about the situation we're creating for ourselves. Maybe Tuesday we will get back to thinking about the fact our government doesn't make money, the people do. The government spends our money as it sees fit. We don't need the government, it needs us. Though they take our money to pay their salaries, we don't need politicians in order for us to survive. We could do so much better for ourselves if we allowed less corruption of our government. We all them to make us feel that we are dependent on our politicians because we forget we fought for Independence not Codependence.