Ooooookaeeeyyy...

I'm not done yet...

There some things in life that are peculiar to me.  This is one of them.

/*** The following is a metaphor.  There is no literal reference to any of the writer's real-world neighbors. ***/

One day, a neighbor tosses a pine cone from his tree over the fence into the next-door neighbor's yard thinking it would be funny.  The next door neighbor thinks its hilarious.  Late at night, he goes and gets some pine cones from his tree and tosses them back over the fence into the original neighbor's yard.

The next morning, the original thrower looks out his kitchen window and sees a pile of pine cones in his yard.  They are not from his yard.  Ohhhhh, my funny neighbor got me back, he thinks to himself.  That's awesome!!  He laughs.

Over the next few weeks, the two comedians go back and forth tossing pine cones over the fence at each other, each time, the recipient laughing at the jest.  All of a sudden, one day, the original neighbor walks outside and finds pine cones in his yard from the other neighbor.  He wigs out, marching over to the fence to find the culprit.

"What the hell are these pine cones doing in my yard?!!!" he yells.

The other neighbor, a bit on his front foot, thinks surely he must be messing with me.

"You bum!!!  I said, 'What the hell are these pine cones doing in my yard???'"

The other neighbor, now seeing that this dude may be serious is incredulous.  "Uhhmmm...well...yeah, they came from my yard.  I threw them over last night."

"The crap I have to endure in this neighborhood!!  What kind of person are you, throwing pine cones over the fence into my yard.  I should call the police!!"

Seeing that this guy is serious, and that he is very angry, the other neighbor is speechless.  How do I even respond to this?  This is insane.

Pretty soon, some of the other neighbors around the block hear all the commotion.  They go to the neighbor that is incensed about pine cones in his yard, and ask what happened.

"This low-life over here threw pine cones into my yard last night, and now I have to spend my morning picking them up and disposing of them!!" he exclaims.

"What a piece of crap!!" shouts one neighbor.

"You ought to lodge a complaint!!!" charges another onlooker.

This really isn't happening, thinks the pine cone-thrower.  The name-caller was having fun with what is now the "pine cone policeman", the other day lobbing pine cones into my yard as though he was tossing grenades from a WWI German trench.  The "complaint-person" was sitting on her porch laughing at the two as they launched cone after cone into my yard.  I'm confused!!!

Things continue to escalate.  "What I can't stomach is that this guy, throwing pine cones in my yard, goes to church." sneers the original neighbor.  "What kind of example does that set, littering some one's yard with this mess?!!!  What a hypocrite!!  That's why I don't go to church!!"

"What?!!" thinks the second neighbor.  Hypocrite?!!!  This is surreal.  I'm going back inside.  You people are nuts...

/*** This concludes the metaphor ***/

In an allegorical sense, I have experienced and observed the above event many times.  I can't put my finger on it.  Is it insanity?  Is it funny?  I don't know.  People are weird.

Imagine the squirrel, up in the tree, who has witnessed the two neighbors chucking pine cones back and forth at each other.  Imagine his surprise when the first neighbor loses his mind, out-of-the-blue, one morning.  I wonder what the squirrel thinks?

Regardless, even if the second neighbor was an @$$h01e, if I was the squirrel, I'd rather hang out in his yard.  At least he is real.

Upside Down

I know someone who has worked very hard for approximately 40 years and recently retired.  All totaled this person paid, in my best estimates, at least $45,000 into Social Security.  Like many "retired people", this person works part-time to supplement retirement income (which includes money from the SSA).  If I my ears were working properly today, I heard that this person recently "worked too much" according to the Social Security Administration, and now has to pay money back that was recently received as a Social Security retirement payment.

And the self-proclaimed "99%" are worried about bankers?!!!!

Let me get this straight!!  You (OWS crowd) sat down in front of the banker.  He gave you a document that clearly spelled out the expectations.  It was a contract that said his company would give you "X-amount" of dollars if you agreed to pay that money back in "such-and-such" amount of time with "so much" interest.  You agreed.  You signed the contract.  You took the money.  You spent the money.  And when it came time to fulfill your end of the agreement (FOR WHICH YOU SIGNED OFF ON), you piss and moan, and say its not fair, and blame the banker.  And that's not good enough!!!  You shut down businesses.  You literally "piss" in the streets and $#&* on police cars to show your displeasure.

Back in the "sane world", the government doesn't present any type of contract.  The politicians just stick their hands in the pockets of everyone who works hard, saying that the "contribution" is for their own good and that it is going to their retirement.  And when the retiree finishes paying over the course of a lifetime, when its time for the government to make good on its promise, it dodges payment according to how much a retiree works after retiring.

Let me get this straight.  I "invest" in a 401K.  When its time to cash in, I say, "give me my money."  The investment company says, "no, we are keeping it because you are working too much."  What?!!!  I'm working too much.  You have my money!!  It is time to give it back!  You don't get to make up rules so that you can keep my money.  Give me my money, or you are going to jail for fraud.

That's where we are.  The bankers, the ones who couldn't have been any clearer or "fairer" simply want their money back.  And they are the crooks!!  But the people who are operating a Ponzi scheme, who are committing fraud are the ones to which many look to "go get" the bankers.

Please stop this train.  I want off.

Why I Love Adam

"What is understood, does not need to be discussed"
- Sammy Hagaar, live in concert on VanHalen's Right Here, Right Now

I have comments.  I have thoughts related to what "he" says.  But some times it is best to let the song speak for itself (rather than "talking it to death" for 10 minutes prior to performing it).

Below is a link to a "The Blaze" article.  The article has two links to Adam Carolla's "rant": one is censored, one is not.  Now, in choosing which one to listen to know this.  He uses a lot of "foul" language.  Children should not listen to the original version. Those who are offended by the "f-word" should listen to the censored version.

I am not endorsing the original version; however, I cannot disagree with what Glenn, Stu, and Pat said in a conversation on today's radio program regarding Carolla's podcast.

Pat: ...You don't want children near.
Glenn: No, you don't want children within the next block, but it is...may I just recommend that you turn the lights down low and light a candle or two, put some Barry White on it, and listen to this rant...It is so exactly right on the money on what's is happening to our society.
Stu: It just what needed to be said in the way it should be said.
Glenn: ...the way that even the most pious among us...
Stu: Yeah, have to go, "Yes!!!! Thank you!!!"...
Glenn: ...there is a time and a place where the f-word is just almost poetry [Stu and Pat laugh] and this is it. [all laugh] I am really sorry...
Pat: I feel bad for liking it, but...
Glen: ...You know what it is?  Its a gallon of Haagen-Dazs.
Pat: Mmmhmm
Glenn: That's what it is.  This rant is a gallon of Haagen-Dazs.  You know you shouldn't eat it.  You know its gonna' make you...I just going to feel fat afterwards, and I'm going to feel like I shouldn't have had that gallon of ..., but all the while your doing it, you're just like, I'm going to keep eatin' this, and eatin' this, and eatin' it because there's nothin' better than Haagen-Dazs.
Pat: And you'll just want to lay on the couch and undo your pant afterwards
Glenn: ...And you'll swear afterwards, I don't want any more of that...and then as soon as you buckle up your pants again, your like, "is there any more Haagen-Dazs left?"  Its good stuff, man.

Glenn Beck is a devout Mormon who advocates good, "moral" behavior (including "clean" speech), but I have to agree. Censoring the original content affects the essence in which Corolla just hits a bull's eye in assessing the dangers that are coming as the last few decade's "youth" start to germinate.

Here it is: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/adam-carolla-breaks-down-occupy-movement-fking-self-entitled-monsters/.  Enjoy, which ever version you choose. ;`)

Tragedy

I was frantically scouring online Black Friday deals at 2 in the morning searching for a new 50" LED HD TV. We had had the 32", 720 p, "bo-bo" brand LCD for far too long. Our Netflix subscription and Xbox 360 had been pleading for an acceptable display area; 32" just wasn't cutting it.

Newegg. Back to Amazon.  Back to Newegg.  Switch over to Best Buy.  So many deals!!! Finally reason overcame desperation.  I don't really need a new TV.  That money could be better spent elsewhere.

Fast forward: next evening.  I solicit sympathy from the wife describing the emotional roller coaster that was comparing deal to deal to deal.  I capped things off with reference to my heroism and epic restraint in not buying a TV.

"That's good." she said.  "I was thinking about it, and we don't really need a new TV. We could use that money to pay off a school loan."

Pay off a school loan?!!!  I can't play COD MW3 on a paid-off school loan!!!

She was right. It was the adult and responsible perspective. That's why she is the CFO.

Or was she right?

I'm part of the "99%".  I'm part of the "working class".  The "1%", those evil bastards with all the money, probably have, on average, one mammoth HD TV in every room of their luxury mansions, and I'm stuck watching old X-Files episodes on what could barely be considered a PC monitor. Oh, the disparity!!  Oh, the financial gap in the rich vs. me!!!

It's those greedy bankers' fault, I tell ya!!!  They knew exactly what they were doing when they made me take those school loans so many years ago.  Looking back, I can see the thumb of the Monopoly-looking character, with the top hat, in my back, pushing me to spend every last dime of cash that wasn't mine, that I never earned, but that I was tricked into taking via the ever so deceitful scam known as a "school loan".  ITS NOT FAIR!!!

Well this is one member of the proletariat that is no longer going to take things lying down.  Sound the trumpet!  Release the hounds!!  Paying off what I owe was so "yesterday".  I'M GOING TO FIND ME SOMETHING TO OCCUPY!!!!!!