Finally!!

I am finally going to release something to the general public (those few who read this) something I wrote a number of years ago. I think it was 2006 when I wrote this. So the Iraq war was still in the media a lot, and people complaining about Iraq war protesters as being un-American, hating the troops, supporting terrorists, etc… I just found that really distasteful. I don’t think protesting policy means you want troops to die.  Its a little dated now, but I figure its time to release it to the world.

Plastic Patriotism
Its very ‘chic’ these days to display a flag on your car window, have a ribbon magnet that says ‘Support the Troops’, or buying little American flags that say ‘United We Stand’, or ‘We Remember’, or ‘September 11, 2001’ with an image of the Twin Towers on it. But what does this have to do with being patriotic or supporting the troops? Absolutely nothing.

Americans have been bamboozled, swindled and tricked into believing that buying these products makes you more of an American, makes you more Patriotic, and makes you believe that you actually support the troops. Almost every store carries an American flag something or other to sell to you, they’re usually at the cash register to grab your ‘impulse buying’ urge.

Of course many people will say that this is just an extension of the pride they feel, and they want to let people know how much they care for the United States. While there is nothing really wrong with that, should they be expressing their pride in such a way that hurts Americans? If you look at the packaging these things come in you’ll see they are made in Taiwan or China. Wouldn’t a better show of American patriotism be only buying these items if they were made in the US, or the profits going to actually support the troops? Isn’t patriotism a good enough reason to spend the few extra dollars it would take to give an American a job?

Why do I never see a sign next to these items saying ‘proceeds go to help buying soldiers Kevlar’, or ‘help support a military family’ or anything like that? The profits go to the store and the company that outsources its factory work. I fail to see how that supports the troops, or shows how patriotic you are. I suppose that is the beauty of marketing though, we see so many commercials and advertising that have American flags on them, we automatically believe that having an item with a flag on it means you are actually patriotic.

There are many other ways to be patriotic. Support organizations like ‘Operation Gratitude’ (www.opgratitude.com) or ‘Books for Soldiers’ (www.booksforsoldiers.com) or some of the many other organizations out there. Donate time at a local VA hospital, search for military families whose spouse is deployed and cook them a meal, walk up to a soldier and thank them for serving their country. You don’t have to support the war to do any of these things. You can give your support to soldiers, and their families, who risk their lives because they felt called to put their lives on the line so you would not have to. Theirs is the greater patriotism, and buying a foreign-made American flag to mislead yourself into believing you’re actually supporting the troops is a sad second place.

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So that’s what I wrote a number of years ago. What made me finally post it? A discussion with a friend of mine last night, that I’m going to go in to in a few days with another post. I’m actually separating it into two posts because I don’t want to make one massively long one.

I hope you liked this, please let me know if you did. Feedback is always nice.

Ignore me

Just testing Microsoft Live Writer for updating the blog.

Pray for me

The lotto is 325 million friday night, which means its a take home, after taxes, of 204,600,000. (Yes, here in the US they tax you on lotto winnings) So pray that I get it, as I think, that might be just enough to help us on our way. lol

I've been asked to help moderate a forum I've been a member of for a number of years. This will actually be the second forum I help moderate. Both are centered on video games, but one of them is more concerned with Securom/DRM issues. Since I don't know that much about those issues I post jokes. (Thats my contribution) This new mod position is in a forum that is more all games, console and PC, I think I'm going to upkeep the industry news section of the forums. I've been pretty much lacking in motivation for the last week, which is why there hasn't been any blog posts, but being asked to help out on this forum has given me a new bit of energy. So thats a good thing.

Aside from that I'm still searching a number of sites daily for jobs, applying for what I can, hoping to hear back. I really wish that healthcare one had been closer, I'd be working now.

My back has been killing me this last week too. Yesterday it was hard to concentrate on anything, even just random internet crap. Thankfully it was gone by the time I went to bed, but that is very frustrating and a reason why I get lacking in motivation at times. Pain is no fun, as many people know.

Disability

Ok, so I've mentioned before that I have a disability, so I suppose its time to mention that. I was born with scoliosis, and if you haven't clicked that link to find out what this is, its curvature of the spine. I was also born with jaundice and had to have a few blood transfusions. I wasn't allowed to come home right away apparently and had to wait few weeks in an incubator. My mother tells me the day I came home from the hospital there was a huge storm. A sign of things to come I tell her.

Apparently a few weeks after I was home my mother started noticing somethng wrong, although she could not figure out what it was. So she took me to the doctors and they did some xrays that showed each one of my vertebrae were different, I had none that were a normal shape, and also a curve. The doctors told her I would never walk, never speak, and be severly mentally handicapped. They then put my mother through an inquisition trying to put all the blame on her. Mabye she smoked, or drank or did drugs while pregnant. None of that was the case. Its just one of those things that happen in life. I can't imagine how it must have been for my parents at this time.

I was eventually put into a brace, I believe it was at about 2 years old, but I'm not sure about that. My memories of that time are not too reliable. (as with most people I think) When we moved from the east coast of Canada to Winnipeg, MB I had a new doctor named Dr David McQueen. He was amazing. He was both stern and supportive, not only to me but my mother. One of my first visits with him ended up with me being on TV in a news report talking about scoliosis. I don't remember if I spoke, but I was the 'scoliosis model'. lol

By the time I was 12 my scoliosis had progressed to 115 degrees curvature. Extremely severe and Dr. McQueen recommended surgery soon. They wanted to wait until I had gone through puberty, but now that was no longer an option. I was progressing rapidly.

That was my spine (in brace) at age 12. In brace means I'm actually straighter than I would be out of brace. I had to highlight where my spine went because part of the xray is so dark. You can see how the vertebrae are not 'normal'.

I was sent down to the Twin Cities Scoliosis Center to see Dr. David Bradford, who was probably the best doctor in the world for this at the time, and is still very highly regarded today. In July and August of 1983 I had my surgeries. They had originally wanted to hold me at 115 degrees but the second surgery was going so well they decided to straighten me as well. I think they did an excelent job.

Pretty amazing stuff eh? He used the Luque method of using wires instead of the more common practice today of drilling screws into the vertebrae with eyeholes and winding a rod through the eyeholes. (if you're interested a youtube search will bring up videos of this type of surgery) I'm guessing my vertebrae could not hold up to that, so the wires had to be used.

So what is my problem today? Well below my rods my discs have been ground down to pretty much nothing. A year and a half ago I had to stop working because of shooting pain down my leg, that ended up being 24 hours a day. Its gotten so bad I can't walk too far, or stand for too long before it gets too much for me. Even sitting for too long causes problems. My wife gives me massages, but my back immediately goes back to having lots of very large knots. She says they are like rocks. I tell her I should go to a massage school and have them pratice on me, I'd be available every day cause the knots will be right back.

Anyway, thats my issue right now. Its also why I get frustrated as well. How can I find work with these problems? I don't 'look' like I have problems, but I do. So there are days when I'm upbeat and happy and other where I'm not.

Job Interview

Good news. Just as my Unemployment Insurance runs out I have a job interview today. Actually I have three extensions I can use for my UI, but it would be better to work than just sit on my butt. The interview also includes my wife who applied for the same thing, which is cool, maybe both of us will have work by the end of the night.

The job is to canvass for health care reform. The site we applied though is Fund for the Public Interest and they have another website the told us to check out as well, California Public Interest Research Group.

This is a low paying job, but its better than nothing, and its also in a good cause. Being Canadian and having grown up in the single payer system I really see a lot of waste in the current American system. For the most part the doctors are much like the doctors you find in Canada. Some are good, others, not so good. The problem I have found with American doctors is being able to spend enough time with them to get proper treatment. A friend of the family has a sister who is a doctor, and she says her hospital keeps tabs on how long they spend with patients, too long and they get in trouble. They are supposed to see as many patients a day they can. The doctors that spend the least amount of time with their patients are praised as good doctors. This is not healthcare that is good. Its definately not healthcare that is good for patients.

So I hope the wife & I get the job. We'll be able to sock away money for our escape, and when we go at least I won't have been out of work for so long. At the very least it would get us both out of the house and away from her mother, and we get to spend time working for a positive thing.

I'll update this later after we have come back from the interview.

Update: Well no go. We had to drive an hour and a half and its an $8 an hour job. Spending two hours of wages on gas to get there, each day, is not a great idea. We would have to work out of that office, start the day there, and end the day there, so its just too far to go. The cause is good, but the distance added to the low pay is just to big a hurdle to continue.

Mother-in-Law Part II

In the sunday LA Times there was an Op-Ed by Candice Reed called: Dear California, I'm Dumping You that my mother-in-law put on my wife's desk for her to read. Its a good piece, humourous yet truthful, and showcases some of the problems facing the state. However thats not what was frustrating, what was frustrating was that my mother-in-law went on to tell my wife that were ever she found work that she should pick up and go. My wife's response was to ask what was going to happen to the house, her mom's reply was that she would do what she could and that my wife would also have to do what she could. Nothing was mentioned about having her brothers help out at all. This is what we need to get away from, the assumption that my wife is going to keep paying for things, even if we are not around, or even if we can't afford it. Who can afford to pay for mortgage and bills in one house, then rent and bills in another? And in this economy?

My brother-in-law called today and he annoyed me as well. Its kind of the 'I have to laugh' call because he told me that his sister is wasting her life away and her education. I told him that she enjoys what she does, even if its in a bit of a slump right now. He didn't seem to care he just went on about her education and that she should be using that. Again I said that she enjoys what she is doing now, and that she hated her education and she felt forced into it. Doesn't faze him, he just again repeated she is wasting her education. Usually I have no problems with her brother, but today I do.

I should explain. When my wife went into university her first year was the 'feeling out year', where she took a couple of different courses to find out where she wanted to continue on. Well by her second year her mother would have none of this and told her she had to pick a career that made a lot of money, her brothers also pushed this, and since she was a daughter who always did what her mother wanted she directed herself to law school. She got a law degree and graduated in the top 5%, however she hated it, right from day one. In the end it was working for a law firm that did her in too. Her ulnar nerve was so pinched that it was completely flat, three years after the surgery she still cannot write more than a paragraph, nor type for very long. So good luck finding work with that handicap. Although her family just thinks she can snap her fingers and get a job. They also deny any sort of pressure to push her in any direction.

What did my wife want to do? She wanted to become a siesmologist, studying earthquakes. Any time a show is on about earthquakes, and even volcanos I turn it to that channel for her, and she'll typically know 90% or more of what they talk about. Its a real passion for her. The good thing is that the University of Manitoba has a geology program and I am encouraging her to take it. Even if she does nothing with it, its her passion and she should follow it.

Encouragement is something very lacking in my wife's family, they have pretty much pushed her into what they wanted her to be, and now that she's not, they are upset. Which is why we need to get the hell away from here. I don't care if we end up just barely making bills for the rest of our lives, we need to get away from her family. I do hope we can leave on good terms with them, and that they don't flip out on us, but even if they do we are still leaving.

Have you ever been under a lot of stress? The kind that you can feel the weight just pushing on you? Thats what I've been feeling for 8 years now. Eight years of disapproval, eight years of complaining, eight years of seeing how her family pushes her, eight years of lack of encouragement. Its gone on far too long. I wish, I really wish we had considered this move back when I was whole and able to work a job. I would have started us saving back then.

Hindsight is a perfect science isn't it?

This week I should be starting to put up some stuff on ebay. Most likely starting with my video games, then comics and my wife's jewelry as well. And whatever else we can find that will get us out of here as quick as possible.

Overdraft fees total $38.5 billion!

Read the title again. And again. Feel anything at all? And that IS billion with a 'b'. So NOW do you feel anything? If you don't you're probably on the side of big business, if you do, you have a heart. Now don't get me wrong, I have no problems with companies making massive profits, none at all, my only issue is when they end up screwing people to get it. And this is one of those cases.

Read this article and see if you feel anything yet. Its only 10% of customers that are paying this $38.5 billion tab. The majority of those who are poor. Ya wonder why the poor stay poor? Well this may be one reason.

I don't know if you'll remember a US senator named John McCain, he ran for president against Obama. He lost, which is why you may not remember him. Well McCain is rich, well his wife is rich, and not just, oh they have a few million dollars and can retire comfortably, they are rich rich. Why does this matter? Well apparently they can run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card bills, but not pay any interest at all. So while the poor pay interest rates from 18%-30+% some rich don't pay any interest at all, they get free loans from private companies. So its more like the poor are really making up the interest the rich aren't paying.

Do all really wealthy people get these breaks? I don't know, but they do get better treatment with virtually every other avenue of life from tax breaks to tax shelters to better treatment in the justice system, so its not hard to imagine they get far better treatment than the poor do.

The poor are constantly beeing fleeced by companies all the time. Not only through payday loans, but through fees upon fees upon fees from banks and credit cards and utilities. You go to pay a bill and you can get charged for that, specially if its over the phone. We just paid $8 for the privilege of paying our trash bill by phone. Isn't that nice?

This even crosses into healthcare where in Michigan Blue Cross is going to raise rates by 22%, they wanted to raise rates by 56%, but regulators said no, but 22% was ok. Their reasoning? They needed to cover $133 million dollar loss (2008) in its individual health insurance policies. Yet it currently has a $2.4 billion surplus, so why are they raising rates? Cause they can, and really who is there to protect the poor and the small businesses this is going to effect? Apparently the regulators aren't there to help us. Or maybe Blue Cross is taking a page out of oil company's books and partying with regulators and plying them with alchohol, drugs and prostitutes.

Rates have been increasing for years, the healthcare industry saw profits rise 170% from 2003 to 2007. At the same time we saw more and more people without health insurance. How is this possible? By raising rates on the people that still have insurnace.

Back to banks. My wife & I used to be with Washington Mutual (now JP Morgan Chase), until our account was hacked and then we were treated horribly by Wamu. My wife logged onto our account one day to find all kinds of 'electronic checks' and lots of overdraft fees on top of it. I think we had about six 'electronic checks' that took money out, and about 9 overdraft charges. Well we called up and asked what these electronic checks were for, and when told we must have bought something we cried foul and said we dispute those and the overdraft charges. (not all, just the ones that would have been valid due to bill payments coming out) In the end we were over $1,000 in the hole because of the whole thing. Well Wamu treated us like criminals instead of victims. They finally did admit that our account was hacked (oddly enough the hacking occured just as they laid off thousands of workers, somehow I don't think this is coincidence), however they said some of the charges were valid (bullshit), and refused to pay back the overdraft charges that resulted until we cleared up the account. Even then they would not guarentee they would pay back the overdraft charges that were caused because our account was hacked. So now we are in a Credit Union and are a lot happier, even if they called us up to talk abotu what happened with Wamu, apparently Wamu let them know how horrible and evil we are. I love it how victims are now the guilty ones.

Like I said, I have no problems with companies making massive profits, but I do have a problem with companies making that off the backs of its customers. And in almost every aspect of finances this is what is happening, and its the poor that are paying the vast majority of this.

This is wrong.