Ah. The new trendy thing on college campuses... free speech zones. Zones that allow you to speak your mind and warn the over sensitive that they may want to take another walkway to their safe space. The intention, of course, is to remind you that anywhere outside of that free speech zone, you are likely to offend someone and should remain extremely PC. 

The trend is taking off lately. Free speech zones are appearing off of campuses, like at this county fair in Colorado. And they are taking form in other ways, as well, like the No Cat Calling Zone signs popping up around New York. 

By now, you are well aware that free speech is under attack by those who have decided that "hate speech" is not covered under the 1st Amendment, and they get to decide what is considered "hate speech." College campuses have deterred speeches by people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Ben Shapiro, labeling them "Nazis" and anything that comes out of their mouth as hate speech. 

Here's the thing. The 1st Amendment does have some limitations. You can't yell fire in a movie theater is the most common example. You can't make threats against others. You can be prosecuted for libel or slander. But the 1st Amendment was put in place to protect the views other find offense, views that may not be as mainstream as others. This allows for the free flow of ideas and brings about change in and of itself in our country. If everyone parrots the same talking points, nothing gets accomplished, nothing ever changes, and things don't stagnate, they decline. 

You don't have a right to be protected from opinions and ideas you don't like. And everyone has at least one idea or opinion you don't like or think is idiotic. There is an entire group of people out there that believe the Earth is flat. While their ideas have no scientific basis and are completely idiotic, they have the right to go on and on about those ideas without fear of being prosecuted or shut down. You have the right to not listen. 

And that's the solution. If you don't like what Ben Shapiro has to say... don't listen to him. You don't have to watch his videos or go to his talks or debates. You can simply go somewhere else. Have your own speech somewhere else for people who don't agree, wow a crowd with your thoughts and ideas instead. Instead of shutting down speakers, have a conversation with them. Or woo people away to hear what you have to say instead. That's one of the beauties of this country. It takes some work and effort, but you, too, can stand up and counter ideas you don't like. You don't have to shut them down. You don't have to resort to violence. And you don't have to scream, curse, blow whistles, chant like morons, or any other of a list of things these people like to do that actually do nothing at all to change minds. 

The entire USA is your free speech zone. It's also my free speech zone. It is everyone's free speech zone. We have reached a point in time where shutting down speakers you don't like and shouting down people you don't agree with has become tiresome even to people who agree with you. It isn't working. So let's try something else. Maybe civility for a change. Put your free speech zone signs away and let's get back to having actual conversations again. 

I have seen multiple articles today like this and this that claim a couple committed suicide - leaving children behind - because of medical care costs. They actually blame ObamaCare in these articles and many others. 

Medical costs are really no laughing matter, and I have talked at length about my ideas for covering the costs and bringing some of them down. Let's face it, medical costs in this country are astronomical, and no one is going to tell me ObamaCare or even socialized medicine will fix it; all either one does is make someone else pay for it, and you are someone else's someone. There are numerous reasons as to why medical costs are so high in the USA, with all sides of the argument attacking the other over it. 

Now, I know I use personal stories a lot, but I like to talk from any experience I have. So we're going to bring my father back into this post. As many of you know, my father was diagnosed with brain cancer at the end of 2014 and he passed away in April 2016. My father did not use Obamacare, but he was on Medicare with a supplemental insurance from one of our state's top insurers. My father was not a wealthy man, but he was as middle class as they get. 

His surgery to remove the tumor was partially covered, but he had to pay some out of pocket. When it came time for treatment - chemo and radiation, nothing out of line - both Medicare and the insurance company said nope! Now, if you have never had cancer or known anyone with cancer, you may not be aware that the treatments for cancer are amazingly expensive. We were looking at costs - per month - of over $15,000. The doctor set my mom up with a company that offers grants to assist, and mom did apply. It covered about $10,000 of that treatment. 

That was just the treatment. Now, factor in the amount of times my father called for an ambulance and ended up in the hospital, plus the cost of a rehab facility he had to pay a good portion of, then the nursing facility ($6500 a month alone), and his medications (we're not going to include his heart medications here), and my parents were paying out about $10,000 a month (more when he went to the nursing home by state order), maybe a little more or less depending on hospital stays that month. 

Considering the fact that insurance and Medicare didn't cover chemo and radiation and all this other stuff, I find it hard to believe Obamacare does. 

As my dad used to say at the start of his illness, you work your entire life to build up a retirement fund only to use the entire thing on medical care until you are broke. 

We do have a problem in this country, and everyone has a "solution." I have mine, too, which you can find in this blog. We all do. But I can't fault Obamacare 100% for this couple committing suicide, although it is in there. First of all, there are always other options. Especially if you have kids, you can find some way. Second, Obamacare's premiums are very high, and the cost of the insurance is very high, which does, of course, make matters worse when it doesn't cover stuff. I've experienced that myself as someone who uses Obamacare and has had a lot of stuff denied. Those premiums, if you aren't well off, can be debilitating. Third, some blame needs to be put on the medical field. When you are paying $30 for a bandaid, there is a deeper problem than insurance companies and Obamacare premiums. 

However. If these people were willing to die together, leaving their children behind... there is something far worse happening here. Something you can't blame on any of this. And I don't think it does anyone any good to knock that aside. "Their medical costs were too high, so they committed suicide! Thanks, ObamaCare!" Well, an awful lot of people in the USA right now are in debt up to their ears. A lot of people are facing being on the street because of credit cards, medical costs, etc. Every day, people wonder how they are going to feed their children. And yet, they go on. They keep living and working and trying like hell to do what they need to do. So while I agree that Obamacare's costs and the cost of medical treatment themselves played a roll in this couple's financial woes, there was something else wrong here. It wasn't normal. It isn't a normal reaction to debt. It doesn't do the cause, these people, or those suffering because of Obamacare any good to hype this as though it were. 

Deep down inside, I wish that wasn't true. But I also know deep down in the same spot that it most likely is. 

Now, for anyone who has followed this blog from it's original form, you know I am no fan of the media. My dislike for the media has reached epic proportions, and the older I get the more I hate it. 

But do I desire to shut any of it down? No! I especially don't support the courts shutting it down. And I don't support the administration blocking the media out. That isn't how this country works. At all. 

Agreed, the media is currently a liberal propaganda machine. But having the mostly Republican administration move in and shut down media outlets with liberal leanings... creates a conservative propaganda machine. That isn't good, either. 

What I find sad is that there are several media outlets that are conservative and are available on subscription basis, but they aren't available on your TV the way the liberal media outlets are. And a lot of that has to do with the blocking by cable companies. That has to stop. I strongly believe that people deserve access to both liberal leaning and conservative outlets, and I'm sorry, but Fox News doesn't cut it. 

In perfect world, the media would be completely unbiased as they were intended. But I don't think that is possible anymore. I would like to force people to come to their own conclusions instead of waiting to see what the news anchor thinks about it in order to form your own opinion. If you don't understand something that is happening - and let's face it, we've all been there - research it. Find out for yourself. Go to both sides. Sadly, people want instant gratification and don't want to spend the time. 

Hey, I'm busy, too. But somehow I manage to keep up on all of this. You can, too. 

So no. I don't support the shuttering of news outlets. I never will. I don't care how ridiculous they become. I don't like MSNBC. I also don't like InfoWars. I don't want either one silenced. What I do want is for people to stop being lazy. I would love an unbiased news source (but let's face it, an unbiased news source wouldn't last long, and that's sad). But replacing one propaganda machine with another is going to solve no problems. 

​Work harder. Don't ban stuff. 

What could possibly go wrong!

They have the same ability to be hacked as your phone does. I know a lot of people argue this point, and hacking is a huge concern for me, too. But as the article points out, they could already pay with their phones, something a lot of people do in stores these days. And your phone has a strong possibility of being hacked. Yes, you too, Apple users. 

In this instance, there is a lot of information the company could get from this chip. What are you buying and how often? How often are you going to certain areas and for how long? How many breaks are you taking? How often do you use the bathroom? Are you making healthy choices in the vending machines? 

This information could be great on a security note. But it could be bad when the company wants to cut costs and decides you bought one too many bags of chips, therefore you are a health risk, and it would cost effective to cut you loose and save money on your health insurance. 

And what point do companies start using these chips to track employees after work? Maybe they would be really interested to know how much partying you do on your free time. Maybe they want to know if you go for hikes or jogs or watch an entire season of Game of Thrones instead. Maybe they want to know what neighborhoods you spend time in. 

These chips could end up doing a whole lot of things. The article even states the chip uses wireless RFID, which is used to track packages in transit. While it doesn't have GPS, no one is going to claim that in the future they won't have GPS and/or Bluetooth. And let's face it, some bosses, if they could get it, they would, and they most certainly would check to see how their employees spend their free time. I've had bosses in my lifetime that would have jumped at the chance. And I'm sure you have, too.

Yes, your phone has all that crap, too. But your phone isn't wired directly to your boss's computer. And you could always leave it at home. 

Things are different these days. People rarely stay with a company for the duration of their career and retire from there anymore. Most people bounce around. Sometimes it's because of sudden department closures, which are huge in the area I live in. And sometimes it's the only way for an employee to advance in their career field.  So having a chip implanted in your employees doesn't sound very cost effective to me, either. 

​Either way, no thanks. I'll pass. 

I won't tear apart the brand here. This isn't a beauty blog. But let's have a discussion, shall we?

A large portion of women in the USA voted for Trump. The liberals don't like mentioning that, and seem to like to lie to themselves that every woman in the USA obviously voted for Hillary. They have convinced themselves that no female on Earth voted for Trump, and nothing anyone says will change that for them. 

So that would lead one to believe that, when having contests like this, some of the women entering the contest are going to be Trump supporters. 

If you plan to take away the award because you don't agree with someone's politics and have an extremely skewed version in your own mind of who those people and their candidate are, then you need to say so up front. Stand behind those convictions and let the people who buy your products know up front that you have decided, with no evidence, that they are fascist, racist, homophobes and won't do business with them. She didn't though, because word would get out and the women who voted from Trump would comply. The fact that she did it this way assures a good portion of them won't find out, because a lot of us are too busy with life and reality to follow her on any social media (I typically don't follow many, if any, celebs). 

But if you decided that only supporters of Bernie, Hillary, or Stalin were allowed to enter your contest and actually win the prize, it should be in the contest rules. If you don't bother to put that in the contest rules or the fine print, then you are opening yourself up to litigation. This girl is apparently being nice about it. I wouldn't have. My reply would have come from my lawyer. 

What shocks me is that people are surprised that this woman is this close minded and bigoted. She had a reality show at one point. I don't know if it is still on the air. I watched one episode and realized right away she was a loon. I could assume her politics, but they weren't mentioned in what I saw. She was just a loon. Just from the dynamic in her romantic relationship, I could tell this woman had a few screws loose. It was... epic levels of cringe. So the fact that she did this is not a surprise to me. 

Let's be fair... this is nothing new. One of the age old stressers is political talk around the Thanksgiving table. 

No one likes having a heated political debate with someone with opposing views, and 99% of the time, even the most civil conversations get really heated eventually. 

I have liberal friends. I had one in college that was the absolute dream of anyone who likes to talk politics. We didn't agree on a damn thing... politics, religion, you name it, we disagreed. But we spent hours upon hours talking with each other, and not once did our conversations ever even get heated, let alone become a stressful, frustrating argument. I don't know why. But we sought each other out and had the best conversations I ever had in my entire life. I search desperately to find someone like him now to no avail. We learned from each other, taught each other, and got a great view into the opposite side without ever inflicting damage points on our friendship.

Right now, I have a sort of friend who is a supreme liberal. I mean, ultra, ultra left wing academic type. We met online a good 15 years ago; he started following a blog I was doing back then, and what drew him to that blog, I will never know. We talk about writing and literature. Never politics. I think maybe once we got into a political conversation. Now, though... we both post political stuff online, and neither one of us comments on them. We just sort of leave each other be. And I think right now that's the best you can hope for. 

On the other side. When I was working for a gun store, they hired this woman. I have no idea why she applied for or accepted this job, but she was there for a while, until the store closed. She was an ultra liberal, too. She was anti-gun. Working in a gun store, yeah. She was the bookkeeper or something. I'm not sure what the hell she did. But we were all a friendly bunch - at the time; that group eventually showed themselves to be full of it - and spent time together. We all went out after work, went to events together, ate lunch together. And we always invited her. She always refused to come along because, as she put it, she couldn't stand listening to our politics. We never talked about politics. At all. Ever. But she didn't want to hear that, either. Obviously, that's all we talked about. But she wasn't even willing to hear anything that opposed her views. She wouldn't follow any of us on Facebook, she never went out with us, she never even ate lunch in the break room. It was ridiculous. She was the only person working there who was really, truly miserable, and she even admitted that it was because no one talked to her. But she wouldn't let us. 

What it comes down to is... what can you stand? How mature can you be? Are you willing to devalue the person because you don't agree on everything 100%? Are you willing to find some form of common ground? Are you willing to open your mind and hear someone out, maybe teach them about how you feel and what you believe? You could be missing out on some great friendships, and you could be missing out on some of the best conversations of your life. But you have to be willing to open your mind. Having everyone around you constantly agreeing gets really boring, don't you think?

Basically, there was a need for a set of stairs in a public area to help prevent people from falling. The city priced it out and was quoted $65,000 to install a simple set of stairs. This is normal; for whatever reason, anything the government has done costs astronomical amounts of money (and it would have taken them months to build them) and no one seems to want to say no. Instead we have battles over taxes and budgets etc.

This man - this glorious, wonderful man - built the damn stairs himself for $550 in 14 hours. They aren't a work of art, but they are not bad looking and are sturdy. They do the job. 

Now, the city could send in an inspector to make sure they are safe. They could make a few suggestions to make them more esthetically pleasing (they are worlds more attractive than any set of stairs in any park around me, though. But really, even though the stairs in our parks are ugly, so one gives a crap. They work).  But even after all of that, it probably won't cost more than $1000. 

Instead, the city wants to tear them out and pay $65,000+ and spend months on end to have someone else install them on the taxpayer dime. Why?

Look, I get it. There are safety issues and all of that. I get it. Allowing private citizens to build this stuff is a no go. However, that wasn't the point this guy was trying to make. The point he was trying to make was that it didn't need to cost the taxpayers $65,000 to install stairs. It's time for the governments to start saying no to these high costs and lengthy finishes. It isn't necessary. And he just proved it. 

You could tie this into the construction taking over every state in the USA. I'll use my area as an example. I-40. If you are in the Raleigh area of NC, you just rolled your eyes so hard you went momentarily blind. I-40 has been under massive construction for at least as long as I've lived here - and I moved here in May 2002 - and most likely a lot longer. Finishing up sections takes years. By the time they complete one section, another section is falling apart, so they start on that. By the time that is repaired, the original section is falling apart, so they go right back to that section. In the meantime, the roads are overly congested all the time, and there are crashes constantly. I used to work on the other side of that construction, and in the morning it took me over an hour and a half to get to work. It wasn't but maybe 20 - 30 miles from my home. 

An even better example, someone I follow on YouTube once did a video showing off the grand opening of a new highway near her that wasn't that long. It took 40 years to build it. Why?!

This is one of those arguments the libertarians always have, which started the whole "muh roads" thing. If the government isn't involved, who will build the roads?

Apparently, the guy in the video above. It is beyond time for the people to demand that these projects get the prices down and the time down. The work they are doing on I-40 should have taken months, not years. I don't know the cost, but I can guarantee it could have been haggled way down. All these projects can be done quickly and for a fraction of the cost, we just need government officials and the people to grow a set and put their foot down. 

UPDATE: 7/24/2017

Govt Tears Down $550 Stairs, Will Rebuild for $10,000

Wow. This needs to stop. When your social justice warrior agenda actually prevents people from learning, you need to decide if you are a college or just a meeting place for protesters. 

I am pushing for this really hard right now, and I need your help. Really, I hate to be opportunistic, but I don't think I have a choice right now. At the moment, with John McCain's diagnosis of glioblastoma, people are looking it up. Congress and Senate are thinking about it. We have a very short window of time before eyes turn elsewhere and this is forgotten about again. 

John McCain is one of many. There are a lot of Vietnam Veterans who have passed on or are currently suffering from this disease. And many more will be diagnosed. It is also starting to rear it's ugly head in our more recent Vets from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Here's the breakdown. The prognosis for glioblastoma is 1 - 3 years. My father was formally diagnosed on Nov. 1, 2014. He died April 22, 2016. He was told that, with treatment, he might live as long as 5 years. That didn't happen. Chemo and radiation are not covered under insurance. My father had medicare and a backup insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield. I highly doubt Obamacare covers it, either, although I don't know for sure. Dad's care was paid for out of pocket, from treatments to hospital stays to the nursing home. Chemo is massively expensive. The nursing home with memory unit was $6000 a month, plus we had to supply his basic needs aside from food. 

There will be pain. There will be personality changes. Massive ones. There will be memory loss. 

This disease is devastating on so many levels. 

On top of all of this, the VA does not recognize glioblastoma at all. Our Vets are on their own. Around 800 cases (as of 2014) have been settled. Why the rest haven't been, we'll never know. These Vets and their families get no death benefit, they get no medical care, they get no access to VA nursing facilities. The families get no assistance caring for their loved one, and sometimes - like with my family - assistance is desperately needed.  

It is time someone started to care. 

All I ask is that you all write a letter to your local Congressman and Senators. Also, call the number on the graphic above. Let them know it is time to recognize glioblastoma. Do it now while they are still in that daze from the news of McCain's diagnosis. It's time we get taken seriously. It's time to stop screwing our Veterans. 

Write, call, fax, tweet. Let's get it done. Contact them often. 

Edit:

Apparently, I have upset the Twitter gods. If you need more information about Agent Orange and brain cancer - as well as other cancers - please see this link. 

Also, two things.

1. This isn't about John McCain. This is about our Veterans. John McCain's diagnosis has brought this illness into the forefront and we're trying to use this short window of time to get help for the many Vietnam Vets suffering from this. 

2. Even if it was about John McCain, what of it? Learn to value human life. Politics aside, he's a human being, and he is about to enter into an illness you could never possibly imagine if you haven't experienced it yourself. Put your politics aside for half a second and learn how to value human life.

I was seeing a lot of screeching on Twitter about Trump threatening to fire Mueller if he looks into his family's finances. I just went through Trump's Twitter feed and didn't find that threat. He didn't say he wouldn't. But he didn't say he would, either. However, the possibility of this happening... don't know. I don't trust the NY Times much, so the whole "he left open the possibility" thing could just be article padding because they don't want to make it look like Trump might actually be doing something right. The NY Times has been known to post some hogwash in the past. 

It would be highly unadvised to fire him. Hopefully, someone around him is telling him so, repeatedly. It really would be a dumb move.

But if you find yourself caught in the midst of the screeching about Trump threatening this, how Trump needs to be impeached because "he's definitely going to fire him," etc., point this bit out from the NY Times.