An open letter to A&E network

The following is a letter I wrote to the A&E network regarding the suspension of Phil Robertson , of Duck dynasty fame..... To Whom it may concern, I find the recent suspension of Phil Robertson to be a bit of an outrage. While A&E network might champion the GLTG agenda it obviously doesn't champion free speech or traditional Christian values. I have gay friends and relatives so I am not some gay bashing Christian writing to you. I in fact think the Christian community has been very tolerant to the GLTG community in recent history. I did not find Robertson's comments to be that offensive and in fact got a chuckle out of his statement. In line with traditional Christian values , based on passages from the Bible , his comments were spot on. He was not pronouncing judgment on the GLTG community , merely stating his own beliefs on the subject. There in lays the issue as it seems that free speech is only allowed by the A&E network when it conforms to a politically correct agenda. Or to put it another way, A&E network believes in free speech only when it is something that benefits the GLTG community or the beliefs of the management of A&E. A&E seems to be fine with pushing things like glorifying serial murderers down Americas throats with Bates motel and Bonny and Clyde but if one of their show's stars comment on his own faith based views in a magazine article you suspend them for exercising their 1st amendment rights to free speech? Even many prominent members of the GLTG community are now coming out and crying foul on this action! If A&E wants to limit the free speech of Christians , which are still a major consumer market factor in favor of a few ,small but vocal percentage of the population in the GLTG community then quite frankly I hope you lose your highest rated show as well as most of your viewership in general ! This is just another prime example of the so called "liberal " community showing just how un-liberal and close minded they actually are. Free speech applies to everyone or no one at all ! Personally, because of the actions of the A&E network in limiting the free speech of Robertson I for one am going to stop watching all A&E programing! I get a little tired of the agenda of the GLTG community constantly being forced on us anyway. I don't harbor any ill will against the GLTG community and as I stated , I have friends and relatives in the GLTG community. I tolerate and in some instances even support the agenda of the GLTG community , especially when it comes to fair treatment and free speech for all individuals regardless of race , creed , gender or sexual orientation. The actions though of the A&E network are a knee jerk reaction to pandering to the GLTG community and in doing so you are limiting the free speech of all Americans! That I cannot, and will not support. There is plenty of other programming on other networks to watch. In closing , A&E can go on pandering to a small but vocal percentage of the population if you want to. In the mean time myself and millions of other Americans will be passing over your network in favor of other broadcasters that don't limit the free speech of Christians. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would urge anyone else to write to the A&E network and express their opinions of the censorship they are doing in regards to Phil Robertson. As I said in the letter to them , we have free speech for everyone or no one at all .... I will chose free speech for everyone every day of the week! Lasco X

The World We Live In

The world we live in is a very dangerous place and getting more dangerous everyday. Not only do we have to deal with the daily grind of sustenance and making ends meet we also have greater menaces on the horizon. Most people in the world don't pay attention to what goes on daily on the world political stage. Many just would rather stick their heads in the sand and ignore what is going on around them but that is a good way to be buried by the shifting sands around them. So before the year ends a few observations looking around the world landscape are in order. The global dynamic is in flux right now as we have come threw some very rough years in the recent past. I don't expect them to get much smoother in the near future. Here in the USA we are battling threw a rough patch in our economic history. It started long before the crash of 2008. It actually started with the slow gutting of our manufacturing base back in the 70's when off shoring became the corporate rage, continued threw the greed of the "Me" generation of the 80's and well in threw the 90's where we had a bit of a turn around but the economy was mainly churning on the construction industry and a fragile housing bubble that would finally pop late in 2008. During the years after the Soviet Union collapsed after many failed years of communistic oppression, the media touted the USA as the worlds only super power. That was an assertion I never really put much stock in. I felt that it was an egocentric and simplistic view of the world. Yes, the USA was in a position of preeminence but Neo-hawkish players sort of pissed away any good will this country could have gained during that period. The USA ended up getting bogged down in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars which was very profitable for the military industrial complex but did little to rebuild the economic engine within our own borders. That rebuilding was something that was sorely needed. During that time from the 70's until now, more and more production was off shored to countries like China that was able to provide extremely cheep labor , sometimes by using forced labor to accomplish their goals. Also they were able to do lower pricing due to the fact they were not constrained to the same environmental regulations that manufacturing is governed by inside the USA. This gave them a distinct economic edge but has cost them severely in the quality of life as many of them now live in tight , highly polluted areas. Greed from the upper levels of American corporate management willingly fueled this switch to off shore production and in turn left millions of middle class Americans out of work and left only with low paying service oriented jobs to get by on. This has fueled one of the greatest divides between the rich and the poor not seen since the turn of the last century in the USA. It's funny how things seem to keep just going around in circles and ending up a little futher down the road but seemingly back to where it was before. America is going to have to make some fundamental changes to fix it's economic issues , but that's a topic for another day. Looking beyond Americas borders we can see what China has been doing with all that money they have made manufacturing the goods of the world. They are simultaneously buying American resources and businesses while at the same time building up their military to challenge America in the pacific and eventually the whole world. Little is being done to counter this build up at the moment as the USA is hamstrung by its own ignorance and excessive spending practices. The USA and China are intergraded trading partners but even among friends and acquaintances disagreements can occur. If this were to ever happen between these to major world players the effects would be devastating for the whole world. Lets Not forget Russia , who is building up their own military and is led by Putin who is old school KGB. Granted he has a more friendly façade on him these days but there is no mistaking the structure beneath the outward appearance. Does this make him Americas enemy? Not necessarily but it does mean we need to proceed with caution. I am sure Putin does what he does, for what he see's as what is best for Russia, In all honesty though I sincerely question how free the elections over there have actually been since he was elected. I don't think you will see Putin out of Russia's political future as long as he is alive. It does provide a stabilizing force for Russian politics but doesn't provide for good democratic processes there. Meanwhile over in the western side of the Eurasian land mass lays the European Union. The past few years have been some turbulent times over there. The fact they have not imploded by now is a testament to them given the growing pains they have shown over the past decade. Europe's role in world affairs should not be minimized by any means as I see them to still be a major factor on the world scene. Then we have the middle eastern region that continues to simmer with discontent. The whole region has been destabilized over the past couple of years... Iraq , Afghanistan, Egypt , Libya, Syria all are simmering... throw in Iran's unstable relationship with the west, their on going nuclear program and their fierce hatred of the Israeli government and you have a fuse that could cause that whole region to explode if sparked. Spilling over on the side lines of that region is Pakistan and another dark horse player India. These two factions have issues with each other as well and help to up the tensions on the world scene. They have been relatively quiet the past few years but things have not been forgave and forgotten between the two. In Africa , the region is plagued by warlords, unstable governments and ongoing food issues. The food issues while fueled by occasional environmental issues are magnified by the power-plays and greedy interests of the few at the cost of the many. In South America the issues have been economic as well as political. They have been ongoing and developing over the recent past but the region has remained relatively stable given the issues that continent has faced. The areas in between these major hot spots have been relatively quiet. There is some issues like the ongoing power struggles in Mexico that has turned that country into a war zone between the opposing warring drug lords and the government. Hopefully they will get their act together but in the meantime I personally am still all in favor of shutting down the southern border of the USA and closing the leaks that can let the violence down there spill into the north. Given all that when I look around at the end of 2013 , I stand by my statement .... The world we live in is a very dangerous place and getting more dangerous everyday. I am not a pessimist by any means. North Korea has calmed their act down a bit , though they are not a country I don't keep a watchful eye on giving their past history of hostile rhetoric. The middle east did not go completely crazy this past year and hopefully won't in the year to come. There has been a small economic up-tick world wide that will in all luck will continue. The best thing for peace on the planet is when we are all working and trading goods and services. It links us together and gives us a common bond. It also helps feed the planets population while advancing all humanity further along. The greatness of humanity will only truly be realized when we get over our differences and start working towards common goals that benefit everyone. Unfortunately though it is generally a few greedy souls that mess it up for the mass of humanity that just want to live and let live. As we end 2013 it is my sincerest hope that in 2014 ,we will see cooler heads prevail. So , as this year comes to an end and we start a new calendar year I will leave this post with the thought...... May there be peace on earth and good will towards all mankind! Until next time Lasco X

Race , Media and the American way.

To start out with, I am not a racist! I do however have opinions about race that might get me branded that due to the fact that I am honest and don't believe in being so politically correct that I shy away from certain topics. I believe that all men(as in mankind in general) are created equal in the sense that they deserve common courtesy and a decent level of respect. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in certain areas so we are not created equal in all ways but as far as basic human rights are concerned, people should be treated as equal. That being said , I will probably piss some people off with my comments but I , like everyone else is entitled to their opinion. In the past week or so the media is finally putting more focus on a thing they refer to as a dangerous "Game" called "Knockout". This is not a new phenomenon and has in fact been going on for a while. It involves people sucker punching an unsuspecting victim with the intent of knocking them out with one blow. The media tends to shy away from the fact that in almost all cases the people playing this "Game" are black/African American. They also don't focus on the fact that in almost all cases the victims are not. This is pretty clearly a case of Black on nonblack crime but the media is afraid to report that aspect. Heaven forbid a person of African decent is accused of a racially motivated crime! The simple fact that people have died from these assaults shows that this is no "Game"! What this is in many cases are hate crimes perpetrated by blacks on non-blacks. The media is afraid to say that, I am not as it is obvious to anyone looking at the video clips of the people laughing at the assaults. This "game" is going to start having bad backlashes in that people aren't going to take this sort of behavior and will start taking steps to defend themselves. This "Game" is going to cause even more distrust between blacks and non-blacks. And what will happen when kids playing this "game" start to end up dead on the streets because some potential victim took out their gun and killed the assailant? More than likely the black community will cry racism and whine about society treating them unfairly. Kids should not end up like Trayvon Martin because they are playing some "Game" , but as I said, this isn't a "Game" , its assault and people do have a right to defend themselves against unprovoked attacks. My Question on this is where is the black community in stepping up and trying to curb this behavior? Why hasn't the President stepped up and said this behavior is wrong? Ok , so he probably doesn't want to be associated with it and so he is hiding from the topic. Where are Jessie Jackson , Al Sharpton and other leaders of the black civil rights movement speaking out on this? Oprah was recently quoted as saying racists will have to die out , and actually I agree with her in that some old views will have to pass on with the people that cling to close minded ideals. But when a double standard like the leaders of the black communities hiding from issues like this so called "Game" and not speaking out against it are going to lead to a widening in the rift and increased bad feelings between blacks and non-blacks. Blacks will cry and whine racism when non-blacks cross the street when they see a group of blacks walking towards them but do you blame them if they are not wanting to get knocked out for simply not being black? Is that racist or is that just common sense! The black community can't have it both ways! You can't sit ideally by and allow members of the black community to stir up fear by senseless random attacks and then call racism when people show distrust towards blacks. Don't get me wrong ,most Americans of African decent that I have met are actually really decent people. I don't walk around in fear of people of a different skin tone than myself but as it stands right now I will be on my guard if I see a group of blacks walking towards me! It shouldn't be that way, but at this point it is what it is since I don't see anyone from the black community speaking out against this behavior. Hell , the media is too afraid to report it for what it is which is typical these days for the media. The media has become very slanted and biased in their reporting in the past decade. Basically if you are Male, White, Straight and Christian .. you are fair game for throwing dirt on and being discriminating against in the media. If you are nonwhite , gay, lesbian, transgendered , Muslim, an illegal alien or a woman then you can do no wrong and should not have a bad word said against you! The media needs to be less PC and more fair in their reporting! I am not saying racism doesn't exist in America and is not still an issue. It obviously does when you read the comments under the news reports regarding the so called "Knockout Game". What I am saying is that the media not reporting the race angle and hiding from it doesn't do anyone any good at all. The leaders of the black community ignoring and hiding from this issue only widen the divide of distrust between blacks and non-blacks. The media slanting their reporting out of fear of looking racist isn't right! People shouldn't walk away from crimes against others for the color of their skin no more than people should be prosecuted more severely because of it! The ratio of blacks in jail is highly disproportional to that of whites. Part of this is simply due to the fact that more blacks are in fact committing crimes but it is also due to the fact that in many instances white offenders are given more lenient sentencing. You also have seen some issues of black offenders walking away from crimes since the current presidential administration. The incident where the black panthers were intimidating voters being a prime example. Do you think for one instance if it had been a KKK member in a robe that Eric Holder would have buried the charges? I think not, but the media let it slide in that case. The media is fast to paint anyone opposing Obama's policies as angry racists who hate the President because he is half black but that isn't always the case. I didn't vote for Obama because #1 - he had very limited experience in politics and really did nothing of note prior to running, Also I was a strong Ron Paul supporter as he was the only person who treated our economic issues seriously and #2- In the second election I voted for Romney because I felt the economy needed a business man at the helm who had a proven track record of taking a state government out of the red and into the black by working across party lines. My vote wasn't racially motivated at all, but if you listen to the media then the people who didn't vote for Obama were racists! The fact that the media kissed Obama's ass and pushed him into the white house was not lost on everyone, just on the people who voted for him. The media went out of their way to make Romney look bad but Obama could do no wrong! Hell , I am not a racist but I am not afraid to say that Kanye Wests latest song that Kardashian went topless in just sucks ass out of fear of being labeled one! I suppose some might feel I am being harsh to him because of his race , but seriously , the song just sucks ass! It's not a racial thing at all, I actually like a lot of rap! I just think he is capable of doing so much better that his latest offering. The simple fact about racial relations in the USA is that we have come a long ways since the 50's and 60's. We still have a ways to go but in all honesty things are changing for the better. It doesn't help though when the media hides issues and the leaders of the black community stay silent when something that can widen the gap of distrust is happening. Sticking your head in the sand will not make issues that do have a racial element in them go away. I know part of it is being done out of fear of race relations backsliding on its gains over the past 50 years but in all honesty isn't it worse to spin it like it isn't happening? The media needs to be more honest , fair and balanced. No I am not shilling for fox as they have their slant as well! The best thing an individual can do is to look at a variety of sources for news and do the balancing act yourself. To do that people need to be honest and open to the information they receive but also smart enough to discern propaganda from fact. To many people stick themselves into a rut and blindly follow the path they are in because it is the easy thing to do, they don't have to think for themselves that way! That is not a very good way to make decisions and is a good way to end up in trouble by blindly following others. America was founded by free spirits that were not afraid to think for themselves and make their own minds up. Lets hope more people wake up to that fact and think for themselves rather than letting the media think for them. Until next time Lasco X

The lies politicians say

America is in the harsh reality of the roll out of Obamacare , AKA the affordable health care act. To put it bluntly , we were lied to. Repeatedly we were told prices would go down and if you liked your insurance you could keep your insurance, nobody was going to take that away from you. The reality of the situation though is that people are losing their insurance in numbers far greater than have signed up for the program and costs have gone way up for many , if not most people. The government web site was a poorly designed piece of crap that failed miserably when it went online. We are now being promised it will be fixed by the end of the month but it should have never been rolled out without being properly tested in the first place. Security concerns abound regarding it as well. Privacy issues and the possibility of identity fraud are being highly questioned about it. I still remember Nancy Pelosi saying "We have to pass it to find out what's in it." as the Democrats pushed threw the bill. At the time I thought that was the most insulting and irresponsible statement I had ever heard come out of a politicians mouth. How her constituents keep voting her in to office is beyond my comprehension. So , How's that whole pass it to find out what's in it thing working out for them? I sure hope they take a hard look at this whole issue and it's effects before they vote for her again. They will probably just blindly go vote her in again like good little sheep but I hope not. The simple fact is that the left / democrats have blindly been following the false promises spoon fed to them and demonizing anyone who disagrees with them as being a racist narrow minded right wingers. They blame the Tea Party for paralyzing the government , but are oblivious to the damage and rampant unreasonable spending and incompetence their own party is doing. In fact it came out a little bit ago the democrats want to just do away with the debt limit all together. Sure why not ... I mean lets just put a brick on the gas pedal of the bus and point it at a cliff just so that the incumbents in office don't have to face a debate on spending and how badly they are driving us into unsustainable debt during an election year! They may want to blame the tea party faction for paralyzing government but it was the Obama administration that was trying to inflict the most pain it could during the shut down to scare everyone. Suddenly open air national monuments were fenced off , something that has never been done in any past shut downs. This not only cost money to do but pissed off large amounts of people. Veterans of our wars were not allowed to see the memorials but Obama opened up the national mall to let a group of illegals in for a rally on immigration reform! And the Democrats and the left wonder why a large percentage of the population believe Obama isn't looking out for Americas best interests? It's no wonder his numbers are in the tank for approval ratings. The cracks in the cult of Obama is starting to show. Finally the media is even starting to question what is going on. It helps after they have finally realized that the most "transparent administration in history"(that was what was promised to us, yet another lie) is nothing transparent at all. The left has also been silent on the rapidly deterioration of our civil liberties. If Bush was in office they would be crying bloody murder about it but since their man Obama is doing it they turn a blind eye as programs that monitor every move we make are implemented. The left is showing their blatant hypocrisy totally oblivious to the reality of the situation. Don't get me wrong , I am no fan of the hard right either. They are not blameless in this situation and have not been helping things get much better. I am not opposed to a reform in the national health care system but the parties are to busy pointing fingers and tugging on the rope to get control of power to do any of us the job we sent them up there for. Both parties are now blaming Ted Cruz and the tea party for all the issues. That's just an easy cop out though as it displaces the incompetence of the two major parties and directs it wrongly to someone else. Say what you will about Ted Cruz but at least he stood up and represented the people who sent him there! Too many other politicians are just representing special interests and big money. In time hopefully the issues with the AHA roll out will be fixed but I for one am not rushing out to sign up until I am sure the servers are secure, my privacy and medical records will remain private and out of the hands of identity thieves and you can actually get on to the web site in a timely manner. Some glitches are to be expected in a massive change up to the system like we are having forced on us but after spending over 100 + million on the web site the American people should expect more bang for the buck and have a system that wasn't so poorly designed. Frankly I want a big chunk of that 100 + million back as we the taxpayers should not have to pay the bill to fix it. We should be back-charging the incompetent people who made the original site to get it fixed. I am sure that will never happen due to the corruption and backscratching that goes on in Washington DC but it should! If the left and the Obama administration want to prove me wrong then by all means do it! Get our money back from the incompetent people who designed that site and pay for the fix! With the amount we spent on that piece of crap web site it should have worked! How much do you want to bet the money for the site went straight into people pockets and paid for luxury homes and items rather than website design! Will the administration demand an audit? Will they do what's right for the American people or will they shield their friends that took the money and ran? Time will tell but most people who watch the system with their eyes wide open and not threw blinders of hero worship and apathy already know the answer. Until next time Lasco X

Should we really be surprised?

It's been a while since I wrote last. Fortunately China got N. Korea back on the short leash and war in that neck of the woods was adverted. I'm sure we will hear from Little Kim's regime again at some point but for now things have calmed down there for the time being. It's time to look at the domestic scene in the USA once again. Looking at the recent news reports is discouraging but as the title of this post states... Should we really be surprised? The reports I am talking about are the following subjects. I am only going to hit on the broad strokes as there is plenty of news coverage to reference and I am looking more at the big picture. First up, apparently the IRS has been targeting conservative groups by slowing down their applications for tax exempt status and green lighting progressive (liberal) groups quickly. More over this was all going on prior to the last elections and was hidden from congress and the public. I guess that's one way to help ensure that the re-election of Obama took place. That isn't surprising as most the media is extremely liberal in their slant when reporting. The exception to that rule is talk radio , in that area the conservatives rule the airwaves. Maybe that is getting reported more now that another major headline broke that several reporters had their emails accessed and phones records pulled. Warrantless wiretapping has been going on for far to long in the name of "protecting our freedoms and keeping us safe" Now maybe the liberal media will pull their heads out of their asses and start being a little more vigilant about our civil liberties. The justice department is justifying this action because they were searching for leaks. Somehow I don't think they were looking for the leaks that made Obama look good like when all the Bin Laden stuff came out. Another headline lately is Benghazi items are coming back up. The democrats blame it on the republicans trying to make things look bad and affect the 2014 elections but lets get serious. Day after day right after the 9-11-2012 attack on the embassy we were repeatedly told it was due to a video on You tube and not related to terrorism. Nothing could have been farther from the truth but that was the story the administration was force feeding us. Now after the elections are over and Kathy Crowley's lopsided debate monitoring has faded in the distance with it's damage in the history books Benghazi might now actually get the investigation it deserves. The media seems to drag its feet when they want to help manipulate an outcome of events in the direction they desire. All of those headlines help demonstrate the hard push to the left that is using tactics that are deceptive in the least and outright illegal in the worst. Not the type of things expected from what was promised was going to be the "Most transparent administration in history" Hell, we haven't even been able to see Obama's collage transcripts and such as they were locked down and hidden away. Could that be due to the fact as the right wing conspiracy theorists claim that Barry Soetoro went to collage with aid grants to foreign students? I'm not saying that's accurate by any means but I do question why his stuff was locked up so quick after the election. The only thing I do know for a fact is that the media thrust Obama into office giving him rock star status and pushed style and image over substance. But then again , in this society that is materialistic and image conscious , should we really be surprised by that? Another thing I know is that the affordable health care act (or Obama care) is proving to be anything but "affordable"! Rates seem to be rising quickly and the systems are not in place to implement the plan that starts to take effect this coming year. That's what happens when you push threw legislation that "We have to pass to find out what's in it!" (Thanks ever so much Nancy Pelosi) It didn't matter that at least half the country didn't want it , that didn't matter. What I do know is that next year if I don't want to get fined on my taxes I need to buy health insurance I can't afford! We will have to see if things actually push threw on it in 2014 or if it will be pushed back due to the fact the systems aren't in place to implement the program. Also on the domestic front we now have the summer price increase in gas costs just in time for memorial day weekend. Prices have increased roughly 50 cents a gallon in the last two weeks for no other reason than they can raise them. Once again ... should we really be surprised. Hopefully the things I discussed will all come to light and the truth, the actual truth will see the light of day. Hopefully if people in charge used the power entrusted to them in a wrongful manner they will be held responsible for their actions. The American people deserve that. Until next time Lasco X

Rumblings on the horizon

This past week a new video was released from North Korea. It depicted a "Glorious assault on South Korea" where the North's victory was certainly assured. This is just the latest fantasy videos from North Korea since the first of the year. These videos are basically propaganda pieces for the North Korean audiences to bolster their own self esteem. Outside of North Korea they are not taken very seriously at all. First off, in the latest video depiction the barrage the north unleashes would probably deplete their ammunition supply rather quickly. Granted they have been stocking up on ammunition instead of buying food to feed their people but that is the least of their worries. The video fails to show the resistance they would encounter. In the North Korean version they run across the border unimpeded and capture 150,000 American P.O.W.s and easily capture the cities of the south. The video doesn't depict the ashes the North Korean capital Pyongyang will be left in if they try this assault. I am sure Little Kim - Kim Jong Un isn't a total fool, at least I would hope not because if it hasn't occurred to him before he better realize we will come gunning for him personally. Where the North Koreans see a glorious leader, leading their army and country, most of the rest of the world looks at him like a young man who is seriously in over his head and is in danger of leading his country into the worst mistake of his short life. The worst thing Kim Jong Un could do right now is believe his own propaganda. Can North Korea unleash it's army and kill a few million people to the south of him? Probably so but it will cost him his own life and most of his soldiers as well. He may feel like a bad ass because they have developed a nuclear weapon but if he seriously pisses off the people who invented nuclear warfare in the first place he could possibly see the end of North Korea as the world knows it. I am by no means urging for the total destruction of North Korea, nobody in the U.S.A wants to see or do that. Believe it or not, deep down we are a peace loving people. I know it doesn't seem that way, especially if your outside the U.S.A. looking in after the past ten years. Quite frankly we would love to see the North Korean leadership pull it's head out of its ass and learn to live peacefully in the world. The masses in North Korea have no idea how good their neighbors in South Korea live. Surely they must have some understanding of how poverty stricken their country is. When people are starving while Little Kim lives fat and happy doesn't that tell them anything? Probably not as they are fed the state sponsored propaganda pieces. The main problem as I see it is that there is very legitimate desperation in North Korea. This desperation can be harnessed for great evil and unleashed to do great harm. If North Korea is foolish enough to attack South Korea and the Americans who help hold the lines at the demilitarized zone there is no real winner in that scenario. Millions of innocent civilians on both sides of the border will suffer and take the brunt of an attack. If Kim and the Generals that pull his strings while they let him think he is charge seriously think they can pull this off they are only kidding themselves! They could make things better in their country just by dropping the highly militarized stance and joining the world community in peaceful trade. If they think they can take it by force they will be scraped off the pavement and concrete of shattered bunkers by the flesh eating creatures of the world. North Korea has been a thorn in the side of the U.S.A for a long time and frankly we are a little tired of it. We are tired of penny antae dictators that prefer to starve their own people and rattle sabers at us. The U.S.A. has no great desire to go back to war with North Korea. We have been trying to have a peaceful coexistence with them since the ceasefire. If the North attacks we are likely to put an end to this issue once and for all. Hopefully Kim and his generals will realize this and show some restraint. Just because the giant shows restraint as the little guy hurls his threats and puffs up his chest doesn't mean the giant is afraid or incapable of swatting the smaller guy to the ground and taking him out! Kim and the Koreans might think China and Russia will back him up but honestly he is a pain in their asses as well. If China really wanted to help Korea don't you think they would have aided them into an economic recovery by now? It doesn't really benefit China for a war to be unleashed in that area. I suppose they could try and use it as a proxy war to weaken the U.S.A but that would be a massive mistake in the long run. China and the U.S.A. actually do have many common interests and mutually benefit from each other. The simple fact is that the only reason North Korea hasn't been already wiped out is because of China. We respect that but if China can't keep North Korea on its short leash the U.S.A. will do what it has to regardless. War should always be a last resort! Nobody truly wins from war. War is bloody and cruel, its senseless killing and destruction! To wish for war is to wish for death! The apparent reason from this show of propaganda from North Korea is to gain more leniency in the United Nations sanctions. I mean god forbid they actually give up their nuclear weapons program to get the same result! Nationalism in all it's forms is dangerous. We are a small world with a lot of people on it. We are the human race but yet we don't always work together as a family. It's an old story from the dawn of time unfortunately. Ultimately it generally boils down to a few people at the tops of governments acting in greedy interests waging the wars at the expense of the masses. It's sad but true that the shepherds of the world often lead their flocks to slaughter for their own gain. Let's hope that North Korea isn't foolish enough to go down this path. Their are some in the world that want a WW3 scenario to reshape the geopolitics of the world. Those people are greedy fools who have no regard for life and worship money and power. Those people sit behind the scenes and prod people like Kim and North Korea to do stupid things. They wag proxy wars in various countries across the globe and profit from both sides of a conflict. The live in countries all over the globe and are represented in all races and creeds. They are the petty power brokers of the world who guide the paths of the many for their own greedy gains and they really don't care who or how many they kill in the process. They are mostly invisible to the masses as they prefer to work behind the scenes and let others get their hands dirty. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be played by people like this though they are masters of the game and know how to pull the strings to make the puppets jump threw the hoops. It's important we try not to play the games that lead to world war. We live in volatile times as the middle east simmers and now North Korea threatens war. Economic turmoil's are boiling as well across the globe which add to the mix. When you combine the economic woes of the world with religious conflict and toss in a healthy dose of nationalism in various parts of the world as well as the quest for energy to power the daily life and development it makes for a very volatile mixture. Lets all just hope nobody is foolish enough to strike a match. Until Next time Lasco X

Same old same old politics as usual

The sequester deadline came and went with no action to stop it so here comes the cuts. Did it have to come to this? The simple answer is that no it didn't. We shouldn't be to surprised that our politicians would just keep driving towards the cliff in the name of partisin politics like they have been for years. I watched an interview with Romney this morning where he said that he felt Obama had missed a golden oppertunity to fix this nations problems over the past few months since the election. I actually have to agree with him. I also agree with the assessment that Obama seem's more like he is still campaining and trying to shove his agenda down the throats of the American public rather than to work for solutions. Don't get me wrong, I feel that the republicains are also to blame in this mess that we are in. They have dug in thier heels about no new taxes. I personally agree that we do need to close some loop holes in the tax system to collect more revenue but I also feel we should rework the tax system to promote business and make it more attractive for business to be done state side instead of pushing industry and manufacturing off shore. One of the main reasons the Republicains are digging in thier heels though is that time after time they have been promised spending cuts for small tax increases to only get more taxes and no spending cuts. America has more of a spending problem then a revenue problem. Doubling down on the national debt is not the answer. Stopping the rampant spending that leads to borrowing money from foriegn entities to prop up the system is the real answer. When I read that Obama waited until Thursday to have a short photo op and then a minor meeting the day the sequester was to go into effect with the Republicains that accomplished nothing at all, it pissed me off! That is not leadership, that is partisan politics at it's best. It's speculated that Obama wants to have the hardships placed on this country just so he can blame the Republicains. It's not that far of a streach concidering we have heard for the last four years it was all Bushes fault! I am not saying that Bush didn't play his part in the economic problems facing this country, but so did the Democrates as they pushed Fannie and Freddy to do loans that were unwise and unrecoverable that led to the housing bubble. Both parties played a hand in where we are now when they deregulated the banking industry and set us up for the fall. Whats heartbreaking is they just keep doing the same old same old point the finger agross the isle and say its thier fault. Well, frankly I have two middle fingers , one for each party so I say a big FU to both of them! I mean seriously, If the leaders in Washington can't extract thier heads from thier rear ends to work out these issues for the good of the country what good are they! If Obama wants America to go threw hardships just to make the Repulicains look bad then we elected the wrong man to office! If Romney had won, I bet we wouldn't have hit the sequester deadline with nothing being done to fix the problem. Romney had a track record for working with the opposition and fixing the problem. He took a state that was in the red and reached across the isle to a house that had a democrat majority and when he left office the state was back in the black! He had promised that on day one he would start on working on the economic issues plaugeing our country and I belive he would have. What have we seen from Obama? Well we have seen the NRA's predictions of him pushing for gun controll come about within the first 90 days, We have seen him alienate the Republicains as he trys too villianise them as he positions for the 2014 elections so they can get a congressional majority to rubber stamp his wishes. It didn't work in the first two years of his first term when they were in controll of both houses, why does he think it will work this time? Can we afford the BS of stalemating the issues for another 2 years just to let the Democrates have a second try at it. I don't think so. Obamacare that consumed most of the resorces of the first term of Obama is now turning out to cost more than projected. Insurance rates are going up and are not slowing down. Many employers are holding off hiring and limiting hours on others to try and circumvent the insurance requirements. Granted that the ever increasing cost of medical services are a major spending issue this country faces it certainly doesn't help when a hospital charges you 18$ for a 30 cent tab of tylanol. Had more time and energy been spent during the first term of Obama fixing the economy and lowering the debt we could have been in better shape now and many of societys problems might have worked themselves out with a healthy privite sector. I don't blame Obama for pushing his agenda but if he gets to bogged down in it like he did pushing Obama care threw the economy can't handle it. He has been a great boost to the fire arms industry as people stock up thier supplies. I will give him that one. The liberals seem hell bent on restricting guns and have been on a full court press on the issue. Like New York ramrodding restrictions limiting magazines to 7 shells knowing full well nobody makes 7 shell magazines. That harkens back to when Pot was legal if you had a licence , but they just would not issue licenses. Its an old trick , say you can but you relly can't. It's just another form of Orwellian double speak at it's finest. Personally I support the NRA because when guns are outlawed , only outlaws will have guns. Also, if the police budgets are going to be slashed due to political fear mongering then I damn sure want my gun handy to protect my house. There has been plenty of fear mongering lately , like why let 2000 illegal immigrants slated for deportation go and not just put them on a plane back to where ever they came from. Wouldn't that have made more sence then letting them go? Hey Janet Reno .. If they were awaiting deportation WTF are you doing letting them go back into the American population? Sure it makes a good fear laced headline but nobody is blaming the Republicans for your stupidity of letting them go and not sending them out of the country. Thats on this administration for not leading and getting our finacial issues fixed! I just don't get it. But then again I am not a politician either,I belive in meaning what you say and saying what you mean instead of telling people what they want to hear or what they fear just to get a few more years dipping into the public dole and then retire with a nice pension. This country doesn't need same old same old politics! We don't need finger pointing and fear mongering! We need people who actually work across the isle's and come up with solutions! Personally I think the finger pointing and fear mongering will come back to bite the democrates in the ass. We really don't need to be waiting on the parties to self destruct or destroy each other though. The old saying .. united we stand , divided we fall is as true today as it was back then. It's time to check the ego's at the door and get to work in Washington. Let's all just hope the politicians there extract thier heads from thier asses and wake up and smell the coffee before they break the system beyond repair with all the in fighting and partisan politics! Until next time Lasco X

The Sky is falling (or WTF with the scare tactics)

Back in 2011 the republicans agreed with a plan put forth by the White house and gave Obama a free pass to raise the debt limit 3 times without congressional approval. This allowed him to get a free pass threw the 2012 election season. It almost ensured his re-election as the fact that not having to address the exploding deficet was a hidden issue. The sequester demanded across the board budget cuts if nothing was done to fix the problem. Now as we near the deadline that has already been pushed back once already, nothing has been done. The responce from the Whitehouse was to try and shift blame on to the Republicains for forcing this sequester on the American people. This past week we have had a number of people coming forward saying basically the sky is falling! If we belive what is being said ,is that Immigrants will flood into the country and we won't be able to controll it. (Like that hasn't been happening already and the recent policys have been inviting them in anyway with all the talks of a posible amnisty deal on the table). Our military won't be able to protect us properly (even though the cuts to the military would only take us down to the levels spent in 2007 when we were actively fighting two wars in Iraq and Afganistan). Also we might have terrorist attacks due to security screanings being slowed down due to lack of screeners on duty (Never mind the fact that the Chinese are already waging an economic and cyber war directed at us and companies with deep ties to the chinese government already have the contracts that handle shipping into some of the countries busiest ports.) I guess we are suppose to be scared into just giving the politicians an open checkbook and another credit card or ten with no spending limit imposed on them. This is truely getting insane as we keep spending more then we can afford. The Democrates keep spouting thier mantra of we will fix the issue raising the taxes on the rich. The Republicains keep digging in thier heels on no new taxes. It's obvious to anyone with common sence that to fix this issue there has to be moderate tax increases and major spending cuts. Most of the spending cuts could come from wasteful pork programs that we really don't need and purging millions of illegal aliens from the social wealfare programs that they are not entitled to in the first place. We already spend more on the military budget than most counties combined so is a modest cut in the budget to trim the fat really going to jepordize us that badly. Isn't the raising debt to China a bigger threat then modest budget cuts. Currently the Chinese are buying up valuble infrastructure and land with the money we are paying them in intrest. You can't really blame them since our government is paying them off with increasingly devalued dollars that are printed from thin air. What most people don't realize is that the second attack stratagem by Sun Tzu states... Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme, excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. The six stratagem states... Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemys troops without any fighting : he captures thier cities without laying siege to them: he overthrows thier kingdom without lenghty operations in the field. The seventh states.... With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the empire and thus without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem. The point of this being our growing debt is far more grave then a modest cut in military spending since we are slowly being undermined economically anyway. Besides, I think the military industrial complex has profited plenty over the past couple of decades so they can afford to man up and make a little less to ensure the longevity of this great nation! I am by no means advocating gutting our military by any means. I am big on national defence but we don't need out of controlled spending and the military has plenty of fat to be trimmed as does our entitlment programs. Why should immigrants get benefits to move here and start businesses that our own citizens can't get? I realize we are a nation of immigrants but we should not be enabling cultures to be moving here and not assimilate into society. We also need to reform the tax codes to promote manufacturing back here on american soil instead of rewarding companies that take the work off shore. The assault on the american economy has been going on since the 70's and we have become numb to it. The unions in the mean time have hurt us as much as they have helped. As much good as they have done with things like 40 hour work weeks and overtime pay , work place safety and workers rights have been offset with things such as corruption in the union leadership , wage greed making us uncompetative in the world market and false security as retirement benefits are pilfered to bribe..(I guess they call it lobbying and political donations) to influance government. We need to work together to fix our nations problems but to easily we are subjected to divide and conqure tactics that stall any real progress towards fixing the issues this country suffers from. To be honest, most people are sheep and don't pay attention to such matters. They like to bitch and lay blame without looking in the mirror first. They don't look at the reasons that effect the world economy and worse than that thier attention span is severly limited when it comes to world politics. We have a good reason to be worried about the future but we don't need scare tactics pushed on us by an adminitstration that has repeatedly failed to present a budget to congress! Why should we keep letting the rampant spending to continue with more taxes without budget constraints and cutting the fat that in reality only feeds the few at the exspence of the many? Why should former congressman get massive salarys for life when they helped drive our economy into the toilet with inaction and sometimes down right corrupt actions? Thier pay and benefits arent effected by the sequester - Isn't that some shit! The middle class is slowly getting squeezed out of existance and it needs to stop concidering it is the backbone of our society. It's time for our so called leaders to stop the retoric and scare tactics and roll up thier sleaves , find common ground and fix the issues our country faces. But thats just my opinion. Until next time - be safe and stay awake to the world around you. Lasco X

Today was the public inageration of Barrack Obama for his second term. I will be honest and say that I didn't vote for him. Why? Well for several reasons. First let me say that as President I do honor and respect the office that he holds and recognise him as our President. I was not impressed by his first term , at all. Granted he did have a rough start and was handed a bad situation from the previous administration. We certainly heard enough blame casting from him and the rest of the Democrates over the past four years about how it was all Bushes fault. The problem was is that it wasn't all Bushes fault! The Democrates played thier fair share in leading us down the road to ruin with action like pork filled bills and pressing Fannie and Freddie to guarintee loans to people who simply couldn't afford the over priced houses that the realtors and bankers were pushing them into. Yes, thats right , they were pushing them into them. I know , you might be saying that nobody forced people into buying more house then they could really afford but they certainly weren't stopping them. They were gladly writing loans where people would be spending 40 - 50% of thier income on a house instead of the old standard of 25% that held a good standard and provided resaonable security for the nations finacial system for decades. They did it out of greed , plain and simple. They weren't worried because the banks were then flipping loans over to fannie and freddie and selling them as unsecured holdings. Basially , the banks weren't worried they were going to have people defaulting because they weren't going to be holding the bag. Both Democrates and Republican law makers set up this with deregulations in the banking industry. Then look what happened when the house of cards came crashing down , it was the bankers that caused the issue that got to be bailed out. But I degress. Let me just say , at this point in time , Barrack Obama owns the economy and its high time he stops blaming Bush. Another reason I wasn't impressed by his first term , The National Budget! I should say the lack of a budget! Its no wonder they just want to keep raising the debt ceiling because obviously they have no clue how to put out a budget and to stick within it. Sure we have to pay our bills we have already incured but hey , how about at least making a workable budget that actually cuts spending and stop borrowing money! The national debt is our biggest security threat but nobody in Washington , exspecially on the Democratic side seems to see it that way! Borrow and spend , raise the debt limit and borrow and spend some more! Get fucking real! This is insanity to keep going down this path! Reason Three, The continuing deterioration of civil rights and the dismanteling of the Bill of Rights. You would think that a president that specialized in Constitutional law would know better but under his last term the President not only continued the march down the path to a police state he accelerated it. Don't get me wrong, I am not soft on National security and belive in a good and just Judicial system but yesterday I watched a video of a pregnant lady that was pulled over for talking on a cell phone. She was thrown to the ground and then hog tied laying on her belly. There was six cops involved! Six cops to deal with a pregnant woman who wasn't resisting arrest! I'm surprised they didn't break out thier nightsticks and go Rodney King on her dangeous ass! I'm sorry but what the fuck is going on with our country! It's time for Andy (the american people) to take Barneys bullit away! I am glad the woman got a 250,000$ settelment out of the cops but personally I would have asked for 10X's that and only settled for that amount if all the cops involved in the incident were fired! (no cops in the incident were fired by the way) Throw in the unconstitutional Orwellin spying on the american populus and you have to wonder what the hell is going on in the USA today. I wonder if the cops and security forces even realize they are being used as tools of the 1% of elites to controll the masses for thier own greedy aims? It's a sad day in America when the people have to worry more about being terrorized by thier own government then actual terrorists! Reason four that I was disapointed in the first term was all the time spent on Obama care. I am not saying that our heath care system doesnt need overhauling but prior to Obama coming into office I had health insurance! Now I don't and despite the Affordable health care act I simply can't afford it! Hell, I am struggling to find steady work and pay my bills! To quote Carvill in the Clinton years... "It the economy stupid!" It still is the economy! The ABC pole done today prior to the inageration had the economy at the top of peoples list and the national debt as second. How much effort will be spent on that this time. In his speech today there was talk about global warming (not enough room today to even go into that BS today) , civil rights and immigration reform. To me that translated to .. We are going to tax you for hot air , pander to the gay community and open our borders for illegls. I hope I am wrong about that but what I want to see is the economy fixed and the budget balanced! Before I am labled as a racist homophobe I will say I am a libertarian who belives that the government should stay out of the bedroom, I belive that all men (and women) are created equal and that our planet has warmed and cooled many times in history. Yes we need some imigration reform but we don't need to just open the doors for anyone and create an enviorment that actually encorages more people flooding across our boarders as "Undocumented aliens". As far as civil rights goes we made some of our greatest strides under the Clinton years when the economy was doing well and people weren't blaming each other for thier problems because there was economic oppertunitys for all. The last thing we need is more wasted time on micro mannaging issues that would be corrected just by fixing the economy. If Obama wants to impress me (which I know he doesn't), I want to see him fix the economy , adjust the tax system to promote manufacturing here in the USA and to create more domestic job oppertunities , Put the teeth back into the Bill of Rights and to Ballance the Budget starting by actually putting out a budget to work from. I am not overly optamistic that he will do any of those things but we will see. As Romney said in his speech at the convention, "I wanted him to do well so the country would do well in the process." My best advise going into the next four years would be to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Don't expect for government aid to be there in a disaster , it might not be available and in all reality it won't be there in time. Stock up on food , save your money and be prepared to protect your family and help your neighbors the best you can. Until next time, Lasco X.