Category: General

Anyone who thinks forcing the citizenry to buy a private market product simply for living and breathing hasn’t thought this through very well. Do not equate this to auto or other forms of insurance mandates. Many people do not have a car or insurance on one by CHOICE. Breathing is not a choice. This is evil precedence. Dead core evil.

How long until we are forced to buy a certain toothpaste with specified ingredient, adhere to dietary requirements, and smokers can forget it… All brought to you by proxy through the governments cozy insurance relationship. It is control by legal mandate.

Anyone who thinks this is going to do one damn thing to control indigent health care costs, I’m laughing at you, not with you. It is a revenue and power grab. No more, no less, negotiated in secrecy by Ramm Emanuel at the bidding of Obama to placate the insurance industry.

I am clearly no Obama hater but I hate this legislation and feel it is the dark stain on his Presidency. Same reason I’ve hated Romney since April of 2006 when under his guidance Mass. introduced the mandate.

[poll id=”2″]

Americans are angry at each other. We are a socially divided nation. For every person who hates illegal immigration there is one championing amnesty. For every person you find against tax increases for the wealthy you will find one, albeit not wealthy, against any tax increases. For every group you find championing prayer in school you can find a secular group denouncing all school prayer by any religion or denomination. For every person that champions gay marriage you can find someone against it.

These are not issues that are going away. They encompass our mindsets and ideology. They define some as left or right, liberal or conservative. Many are in the middle as they disagree or agree with positions on both sides. The greater farce presented by the media is the chances for compromise. Neither side sees any room for it.

Don’t like the animosity towards each other? Too bad. Denying reality serves no one. The media now exists to exploit these opinions and opposing view points. There is no longer such a thing as “impartial” news. Every commentators opinion is designed to reinforce network ideology and fuel your hatred towards the opposition. Are we reaching the point where only mutual tragedy can unite us?

The NYSE will be open 251 days in 2012.

I have read the word “Yea” used out of context more than 4 times on forums and facebook today alone.

“Yea” is the legally formal way of saying “yes,” used mainly in voting and to call courts into session. It’s the opposite of—and rhymes with—“nay.” When you want to write the common casual version of “yes,” the correct spelling is “yeah” (sounds like “ya” ). When Connor’s third grade teacher announced a class trip to the zoo, the kids yelled “yay!” (the opposite of “boo”!).

The most incorrect usage is those who want to exclaim “Yay!” in excitement but end up calling court into session “Oh yea, Oh yea, Oh yea”….God save the state and this honorable blog.

One of the most disturbing and irritating new marketing trends is companies who send out marketing spam with links to their “impartial and informative” industry blogs which are nothing more than sales pitches in disguise. Bad disguises. Bad disguises that generally never fool anyone touting “trends” and “directions” in their respective industry.

Their “Featured Articles” are generally no more than detailed articles about industry products strikingly similar to products the sponsoring company offers. Surprise, surprise. This has been going on for a while now but it’s becoming more prolific. The biggest problem this trend presents is the way it makes it difficult to find real information about an industry trend or technology without the bias of a corporate revenue agenda. In other words: they screw up the Google search results.

On a few occasions I’ve been asked to write a blog article for various technology manufacturers. Once I accepted such an offer from a company that manufactures PDU’s (power distribution units) and my writing was soundly rejected, as expected, because I told the truth. The truth was occasionally counter to the companies product offering even though they claim their published articles are unbiased opinion. Bullshit. I never accepted another offer to write an article for a corporate “blog”.

Let’s see if this will be left unanswered….

Representative Weiss,

“Just over two years ago I lost a friend, Ian Quick, known locally as “Spyk”, who was killed by a hit and run driver named Gavin Clifford Hawk.  In depth details about the entire incident can be found here: https://toddsingleton.net/chronicle/?p=492

At the time of Spyk’s death it was suspected, but could not be proven by investigating detectives, that Mr. Hawk had been drinking with his father at a Hurricanes game minutes before he hit Spyk on I-40.  It is the suspected reason he left the scene of the fatal collision.  I was with the family at the time authorities identified and apprehended Mr. Hawk who ultimately received the maximum sentence available in NC for a Felony Hit and Run, 24 months.  Mr. Hawk was recently released from prison.

As you may well know from media reports there has been another hit and run incident resulting in the death of Melissa Sue Johnson as she crossed South Saunders Street this past Sunday evening.  The incident prompted my correspondence.  As of the time of my writing investigators are still trying to identify the perpetrator.

The problem is obvious:  If and when investigators locate the driver who struck and killed Mrs. Johnson the most this person is eligible to receive is 8-24 months in prison dependent upon prior convictions etc.  Fleeing the scene of a hit and run accident is far more beneficial to a drunk driver than hanging around to face increased charges of attempted homicide, manslaughter or murder.  Two years is a pittance compared to the sentence levied upon conviction of any of those charges.  The state needs a solid deterrent to fleeing the scene of an accident when death or injury may have occurred.

As a constituent of Wake County, and a supporter of the family members who have lost loved ones to hit and run drivers, I humbly ask that you consider introducing legislation into the North Carolina General Assembly making a hit and run conviction a Class C Felony at minimum with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.  It is currently a Class H felony, the same classification as felony possession of stolen goods.  This is an insult to the families of the victims since, in great probability, the assailant had a reason to flee the scene that could include, but is not limited to drunk driving, outstanding warrants or an illegal immigration status.    It’s time for NC felony hit and run sentencing guidelines to catch up with the times.

Thanks for your time.”

“Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation.” – Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785

The GOP/Tea Parties convictions are based upon the flimsiest of principles: no one owes anyone else a living. That is not much of an engine to drive America. It speaks more to the notion that we are each an island unto ourselves, taking as much as we can get for ourselves, giving as little as we are compelled to give to others. This nation wasn’t built on the principle of leaving your neighbors in harms way.

Based on their message, had any of these GOP candidates been a firefighter, most would have never have rushed into the Twin Towers, because they wouldn’t have owed anyone that effort. Had they served in the military, they might have a completely different idea about not leaving anyone behind. Sorry, GOP, it isn’t really the government that needs fixing; it’s the politicians who think the rest of us owe them unfettered access to America’s largesse in perpetuity, first as incumbents, then as consultants to government funded corporations, then as lobbyists, ad infinitum.

Deuce Bollards (Prof)