The doctor won't be seeing you now... or ever

Today I felt that there was something wrong with the way our country is run. Hard to believe, I know. I came across this feeling when I laying in my bed talking to my wife at 12 at night thinking of ways to smuggle my good friend over the border into Canada (AKA America +) and find a way so that he can get help with his medical problems. I thought, well, I guess we could go up there and get him liquored up real good, and have him go to the emergency room and a near by hospital where he would put on a show and complain about his "pain".

You see, my friend has Chron's disease and has been fighting it for about 4 years now. Now he's a great guy but not the most fortunate person money-wise. I just learned that he was under government insurance, and two years ago he was dropped. Not to mention that if he did try to get normal insurance, not only would the not cover his medication needed to treat the disease but he would practically be living in the gutter with every penny going to an insurance company. I love insurance companies. If you have a history of illnesses (you know, the kind of people who actually really need the coverage) often find themselves denied coverage. It just makes me sick. He's actually supposed to be getting a shot each week and hasn't done so in two years. God Bless you, America. I'm proud that I can call myself both the backbone and rectum of America. No Government health care... now why? Well that would be Communism don't you know. Now, I don't agree with communism, and I also don't agree with the people who believe the previous statement mainly because it seems the the people I hear this from can't even tell my what communism is. Lets take a look at the list of all the industrialized countries in the world that have a socialized health care system.

Notice how The U.S. is not on that list, Thats because The good ol' U.S Of A is so better then the rest of the world that we are years ahead of the game. Well, at least thats what I like to think being a citizen of this self-proclaimed greatest country in the world. Thats right. This is the land of opportunity. One would think you could just walk out your door and make something of yourself....Wow, is it that simple? Finally, now I get it. And to think I was contemplating helping my friend over the border to receive the care he's been without for years now. Well, I guess when it comes right down to it, my friend with the Chron's disease just isn't trying hard enough. Perhaps when he lands a better job he can be insured just like me.....Although my wife isn't covered by my insurance.....I guess she needs to get her act together too.

Your $2.25 an hour is now mine

One thing I don't understand is why people are so angry about illegal immigrants. And angry can be an understatement. I have heard people talking about beating or even killing a Mexican for moving here and "taking our jobs." So I guess I should be angry too, right? I mean these foreigners are storming the American banks of The Rio Grand spreading out over the whole of the United States and putting guns to the heads of employers and are demanding them to hire and pay them less then minimum wages under the table. Then they go back and change the deal on the poor, innocent employer demanding that they also get to work hard long hours. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it's going down. I'm also sure that Mexicans fully supported the idea of NAFTA, one of the many death blows given to Mexico by the good ol' U.S. of A. [Read this article.] So what else are they supposed to do? Just starve to death? People do what needs to be done when times get bad, so they're all coming over here where there is work. Now here's the kicker. You don't like them being here? Don't employ them. The problem with this whole thing is that our employers are greedy. Anything to save a buck... Actually not all are greedy, some are just trying to keep their business afloat and hiring cheap labor is the only way they can do it. It's not entirely a black and white picture, there are several shades of gray in the mix. But if you feel that kicking them out of the U.S. is the answer then how about you start getting on the backs of the business owners. Grant it a lot of the manual labor jobs might not be appealing, such as cleaning floors, dish washing, land-scape work, or fruit picking, and I have also heard the statement that people just don't want to do such jobs, but the thing is, you pay people a decent wage and you'll find people that will be willing to get dirty for their pay. Especially at these economic times, where a job is a job. [Read this article.]

ATTENTION!

You know how in elementary schools the children have to take the Pledge of Allegiance to prove themselves loyal and worthy of their born into citizenship? Well, come to find out these kids aren't doing it it everyday just for reasons of making a point, in fact, it turns out The Pledge expires after 24 hours. I was shocked, to find out how truly disloyal I was all these years just because I failed as a true American and let the daily tradition fade after I graduated the 5th grade. I know that for some of you it too has been years since you have taken the Pledge of Allegiance, unaware that your loyalty is in shambles and every foot step you take on our fine country taints the very soil you walk upon. Now, I know your probably thinking about throwing yourself in front of a bus, and you really should, but before you let the disgust take over completely, I have you know that there is hope. You see even for us backsliders once you utter those proud, powerful, God fearing words (The Pledge of Allegiance) you're on good terms and again loyal to the country you love. Now, since I care for my fellow man, even the ones that are down on their luck, I have posted the Pledge below.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all."

Now, I find that the more meaning you say it with, the more loyal you become. And go ahead and say it a few more times, I assume it stacks, increasing your loyalty with every go. I usually say it about 50 times a day, once for every blessed state in our fair Union.

So...That's My Dream?

The American Dream is dead. By American Dream I mean being able to live the way you want to live. Most people think of the American Dream as this idealistic way of life that usually includes a nuclear family set up with a decent sized house, white picket fence, 2 cars in the drive, and the family dog. I guess that sounds pretty good, if, ya' know, that was your own goal. But what about people whose idea of the Amero-Dream is different? I thought about this when one of my friends started talking about how he'd like to buy a boat and live from there, and travel around when cold weather moves in or storm seasons come around. This is this guys idea of a perfect life, and I have to admit, I wouldn't mind it myself. But here comes the problems: In doing this you might only be able to hold down a job for maybe 6 months. This means no insurance. If you get sick or injured you're pretty much screwed. We are the only civilized county in the world that does not have a government health care system, and by it being like this, people who have dreams of this sort of life will never be able to experience it. It is their right to live how they want to live. Sure they could still do it, but they way many jobs pay out, especially odd jobs that you would have to pick up here and there until you need to move on, things would be severely tight, plus like I said, if you get hurt, thats the end of that way of life for you, and I'm not talking because of a crippling injury of sickness, but because of the super expensive hospital bills. I wish people would realize that suburbia isn't the final goal for everyone, and not everybody would like to attend college or hell, just plain out can't afford it. Just because the general opinion is that college is a good thing doesn't mean we should look down upon those who reject it.

Why?

Alright, I am Agnostic and have recently deemed myself so. My whole life I have been a pretty big, God-fearing, Christian. That is until the people at my church started to contradict themselves. I left, but remained loyal to the belief for the next four years. This all changed when I quit my job to move to go to school. I was off work for about four months and had a lot of free time.

I began asking some questions, questions I have always, due to the fear of damnation, been afraid to ask. Like why? And thats just it. Why? I felt like a five year old again, with this burning desire to know just how things worked. Except this time around I discovered how to apply logic... All by myself. Anyway, I first asked well what is this life and world for? And what could all of this mean to a God? I was thinking maybe entertainment reasons. You know that Shakespeare saying about "all the of the world is a stage and all the people its players." But, to something that is so eternal, the whole life span of the universe itself would be like a blink of an eye. So I became perplexed.

Now, what really bugs me is when I try to talk about this to church going people, in a polite manor that is, they get either upset, nervous, or throw me the ol' stand by, "God works in mysterious ways," which I have come to learn is pure crap for "I don't know and I don't want to know." Now, you'd have to be under some savior pressure to avoid a topic like that. I mean, this topic is something that affects your life and in some cases with some people, the lives of others. All these people just tend to look at you when your asking these kind of questions with worried eyes and fearful hearts, almost just hearing such things is leading them astray. It seems to me that for some people, the word 'why' has been stricken from the vocabulary from the get go...

Funny, this reminds me when I was helping out with a youth group. We where teaching young kids and this woman I worked with would come in singing this song called "I Just Wanna be a Sheep." I mean, at the time it didn't phase me, but now it seemed that these kids are being conditioned to be followers and nothing more. Their mouths shut and their ears open for the next order barked out from the pulpit. There was never a lesson in all the teachings that once told them that they should question authority from time to time.

Boxes On Our Heads

I would like to start this crazy blog off with something that a friend of mine, which I will refer to him as Lonny (although his real name is Chad.) Lonny brought it to my attention that nowadays people are way too relaxed with what's going down in the government. And by relaxed I mean people are completely and quite happily blind to what's going on.

An example: A bill that was passed by our glorious president and pseudo Savior (Jesus' right hand man and go-to guy), George W. Bush. Because of this bill, all infants have to be DNA tested, and the information goes into a government database. Here's an article.

Anyway, my point is that this thing just slid under the radar. Now, I work a very blue collar job, (I, personally, don't really fancy myself blue collar) and none of my fellow employees have heard of this bill. This is kind of a big thing and all we need is for the insurance companies to get a hold of this information and there will be some really huge problems. This is something that affects everyone and yet no one seems to care. They just shrug and brush it off. It kinda blows my mind how well trained we all are. Well, I can't say we are totally trained. I have seen some angry people rise up, get out of their cars and storm the doors of their local McDonalds and demand that justice be passed for their careless mistake of getting an order wrong. Or people buying something only to find out the next day it went on sale. People waste no time at all to see that their dealt a fair hand when it comes to their products and food stuffs. All this energy and anger and none of it used on the bigger issues. But at least that burger kid won't make that same mistake again. Well played.

About

Hello and welcome to Complaining: The Great American Past Time.

This crazy blog is pretty self-explanatory. I find things in this world that don't make much sense to me and discuss (or complain if you will) why it's dumb and why these particular things should be abolished... preferably in a fiery explosion or bashed to an oblivion by an angry mob throwing rotting vegetables and unwanted household appliances.

Although I can be a bit opinionated, I am open-minded when it comes to intelligent debate and feedback. I will even go as far as to say that I know very little, but I do have specific feelings about things, and a job -- working in a dark booth, with no windows and no real conversation for 8 hours a day gives you a crap load of time to really think about things. I do try to keep positive, but I find this to be a task in its self when I'm secluded for a 3rd of the day 6 days a week. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rants, and perhaps gain some insight fro a guy that "voluntarily" locks himself away [at work] every 16 hours.