WTF! rant

I hate this feeling. The same feeling I've felt pretty much my whole life. Although, I hate the feeling, I refuse to change/conform to the "norm". I am a nice, caring, respectful guy that wears his heart on his sleeve. It feels like a curse but in the end I'm hoping it is worth it. I put in 110% because my philosophy is either go all in or stay out of the game when it comes to love. I could be like the other guys around me that don't care, disrespect women, old people, etc, with their lack of morals and moving from one woman to the next with no regards for anything. I know one day I will find the woman that compliments my personality, and is everything I want instead of oh well, she's hot, or she's ok but she's _____. I thought I found three women that I felt were the ones (not at the same time)but turns out I messed up with the first because I was to conservative in making a move because I was scared. I thought I learned my mistake so the second one I was more honest and up front with and I'm pretty sure we are just friends even though she didn't say it yet. The third was going great, I felt such connection and then boom a 360, an old flame came back into her life and she wants to be friends. I'm getting slightly better at not messing it up on my end but it still sucks. So I'm back at another dead end road, at least at this moment in my life. Bad timing seems to follow me. I always seem to mess it up then when I finally get my act together; they are taken or not interested, or just want to be friends. Maybe I need to change a little bit. I need to change from the nice guy to the great guy. I read an article this week that said nice guys let people step all over them so that they can please everyone but a great guy knows what he wants, stands up for what he wants, and is still nice about it. I need to become that guy! I'm just tired of women using me, I guess I am to blame because I could say no but I'm sucker when it comes to doing something that makes a lady happy, even if sadly in the end I'm left empty handed and in the dust. I just wish that women knew what they wanted, and realized what they threw away. They say they want nice guy but then you are genuinely nice and they go for a bad guy. I get it that nice guys are predictable but nice guys can be fun, too and they are loyal. Bad guys are just that, they don't care and they will probably never care.

Letter to employees

Below is a great synopsis from a business owner’s perspective of today’s economic landscape. I received it from a friend and think it is worth sharing To All My Valued Employees, There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. Of course, as your employer, I am forbidden to tell you whom to vote for - it is against the law to discriminate based on political affiliation, race, creed, religion, etc. Please vote for who you think will serve your interests the best. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interest. First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You saw my big home at last year's Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don't see is the back story. I started this company 12 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living space was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business --- with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had. So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 PM, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, ****, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to me like a 1 day old baby. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made. Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why: I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch. The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don't understand .. to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now. When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the mud of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem anymore. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship. While tax cuts to 95% of America sounds great on paper, don't forget the back story: If there is no job, there is no income to tax. A tax cut on zero dollars is zero. So, when you make decision to vote, ask yourself, who understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of saving your job. While the media wants to tell you "It's the economy Stupid" I'm telling you it isn't. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me in the South Caribbean sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about. Signed, Your boss, Michael A. Crowley, PE Crowley, Crisp & Associates, Inc. Professional Engineers 1906 South Main Street, Suite 122 Wake Forest, NC 27587

Stop this idiocracy!

Do we really need another costly stimulus package? I heard there is talks of making yet another package that will inevitably cost us taxpayers even more money to help maybe 5% of the intended recipients, while the rest gets lost in his pocket, her pocket, etc. It didn't work the first few times, it only delayed it by a few years and increased unemployment to over 8%, doing the same thing expecting the different results is just a terrible concept to believe in. Plus, adding more government jobs does not help anyone. If we don't get private sector jobs booming again, it doesn't matter how many jobs obama creates in the government because eventually there will not be enough tax income to support the top heavy government. No money from taxes from private sector employees and employers no money for government employees. Simple as that. Government jobs take away from growth and private sector jobs increase growth! This government needs to kick Bernanke and the fed out of their high and mighty unaccountable positions and stop holding us hostage with our own money. We need to take back our power to print our own money and control our own markets not some private banking firms without oversight tell us what is right or wrong to do with our own money. Then we need to just stop printing the money and inflating it's value, we need to shut the government down. Yes I said shut it down for a few days, weeks, however long it takes. It will hurt, and get worse before it gets better but once we overcome that we can become better, stronger, and efficient reevaluating our priorities, stopping wasteful spending. Taxes, stimulus, etc is not the problem it is wreck-less spending done by the people we put in power and its time for a regime change, get new blood into congress, fix the country the right way, not by throwing our money into a fire hoping to put it out with magic. Stop spending/printing it period! We have to cut costs in our budget so the government should too. China can't support us forever, even they are getting a little leery on our good faith of paying them back.

Here we go again

As you all know, Donald Trump made a big deal about Obama's birth certificate and the White House released the birth certificate.

I will tell you right now that I had never given this "birther" issue any credit. I watched the hype and the crazies come out. I completely dismissed the entire ordeal altogether. In fact, it was not until the White House released the birth certificate that it had gained my attention.

I am the studious sort of guy, and I have plenty of time on my hands. So, I took a close look at this document. While I would have thought that this issue would have been closed for good (and, got the crazies to crawl back into their holes), I found two extremely strange inconsistencies that merit some attention.

First of all, the birth certificate that the White House released lists Obama's birth as August 4, 1961. It also lists Barack Hussein Obama as his father. No big deal, right? At the time of Obama's birth, it also shows that his father is aged 25 years old, and that Obama's father was born in "Kenya, East Africa". This wouldn't seem like anything of concern, except the fact that Kenya did not even exist until 1963, two whole years after Obama's birth, and 27 years after his father's birth. How could have Obama's father have been born in a country that did not yet exist? Up and until Kenya was formed in 1963, it was known as the "British East Africa Protectorate". But, this is not the only thing that I found that just does not jive.

Actually, according to Wikipedia, British East Africa became known as Kenya on 12 December 1963 and a year later, 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed. (Wikipedia - ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya#History -Post Colonial History)

The other item that I looked into was the hospital that Obama was born in. On the birth certificate released by the White House, the listed place of birth is "Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital". This cannot be, because the hospital(s) in question in 1961 were called "KauiKeolani Children's Hospital" and "Kapi'olani Maternity Home", respectively. The name did not change to Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital until 1978, when these two hospitals merged. How can this particular name of the hospital be on a birth certificate dated 1961 if this name had not yet been applied to it until 1978?

Go ahead, look it up. I am not talking crazy talk, these are the facts. Like I said, I thought that this was a non-issue until the actual certificate was released. Now that it has been released, of course I had to look into it. I have found these issues, now I know that something is up. If you doubt me, just look at the following resources:

Sure enoughl, the hospital part is true, as you can read about the 1978 merger here. http://www.kapiolani.org/women-and-children/about-us/default.aspx


From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya#Prehistory
Post-colonial history

The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals, it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government shortly before Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963, on the same day forming the first Constitution of Kenya.[36] During the same year, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somalis who wanted Kenya's NFD joined with the Republic of Somalia. The Shiftas were defeated in 1967.[citation needed] To discourage further invasions, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969, which is still in effect.[37]

On 12 December 1964 the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president.[38] At Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel arap Moi became President. Daniel arap Moi retained the Presidency, being unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 (snap elections) and 1988, all of which were held under the single party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of an abortive military coup attempt on 1 August 1982.

The abortive coup was masterminded by a lowly ranked Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and was staged mainly by enlisted men in the Air Force. The attempt was quickly suppressed by Loyalist forces led by the Army, the General Service Unit (GSU) — a paramilitary wing of the police — and later the regular police, but not without civilian casualties. This event led to the disbanding of the entire Air Force and a large number of its former members were either dismissed or court-martialled.

The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of a secret ballot.[39] This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and it led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including one that allowed for only one political party were changed in the following years.[40] In democratic, multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997, Daniel arap Moi won re-election. In 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from running, and Mwai Kǐbakǐ, running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" — NARC, was elected President. Anderson (2003) reports the elections were judged free and fair by local and international observers, and seemed to mark a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution.[41]

Help me with this concept?

I don't understand the concept of non-essential personnel.

If they are non-essential why are companies/governments paying them.

Current rants about this adminstration

I don't understand why Obama waited this long to release his birth certificate, if its even his real one this time. However, it doesn't even matter whether he was born here or not, don't get me wrong it is a huge deal but for these purposes it is not. There is one single fact that everyone (well media) seems to fail to report or emphasize on, he went to school in Indonesia. Why is that a big deal you say? Well, based on some research I have done (and I may be wrong), at the time that he he was living and attending an Indonesian school they required an Indonesian citizenship. Well because of this law Obama would have had to become a citizen of Indonesia AND the country did not accept dual citizenship at that time, & I'm not sure if they have changed it since, so that would mean his US citizenship would be revoked. So in the end it doesn't matter where he was born, the citizenship was revoked, or in theory it should be. He does have ties to terrorists! Bill Ares, known terrorist, even admitted being friends with Obama after he was elected for President, even though during the campaign it was "debunked" or whatever.

But whatever it may be, even if he is qualified and all this birth certificate is just politics, he is still destroying the country our grandparents, parents, etc. help maintain. I respect the office but I do not respect the man. It's been 2 years and there is nothing to show for it, expect huge bailouts, stimulus, etc. Our debt has nearly doubled since Bush. Ok, Bush added alot to the deficit but that took 8 years, Obama added almost the same amount in less than 2-3 years!!! Maybe even more with his health-care overhaul. Not to mention his backdoor deals to give our money to foreign countries to drill for oil (*cough Brazil) and then make the deal so great for that country that we get nothing out of it!

Oh what about the oil crisis, he took his good old time trying to fix it but had plenty of time to make it into a political issue. Why not fix it first then do the politics of it all. I believe Obama used the crisis to his advantage to drive the issue of green energy. Bush had an oil crisis, yeah it was smaller but he wasted no time to fix it. He did what needed to be done but no, this administration says did not even accept help from other countries because of some technicality of some old law that says American unions need to be on the ships in order to help, I don't remember exact law but I remember that was the excuse. Well, why couldn't the man just give an executive order lifting the law temporarily just like Bush did during his oil crisis. I guess this administration doesn't care about getting things done, just looking good and blowing smoke up our ass.

Look it the world now, gas is going up and he's telling Saudi Arabia to increase its production. Seriously!? Our country is more of a mockery now than ever. Ok, Bush had his flaws but at least he stepped in and fixed gas prices, yeah they went up but eventually his administration got it back down, this joker now, I'm sure he's letting it get this high to again promote Green Energy. Why not? What better time to promote something, its a crisis people will eat it up and say...yeah...we need to do green energy. The thing that gets me is that if Bush was in office, people would crucify him but since it's not Bush, "oh, that's ok..Obama's trying" fuck that shit! How are you going to hold people to 2 different standards. Ok, I need to stop. There will be more later.

Movie review - Limitless

Very good movie about taking a drug that can open our ability to use the full potential of our brain...but at what cost? The main character is a writer who has not produced a descent book in a long time, behind on rent, etc. He is about to lose everything in his life until a magic pill turns his life around. With every good thing in life there is a side effect...