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http://www.tumblr.com/blog/leftwingwiil 

DON'T FORGET THAT I MOVED !

This is a friendly reminder that you will no longer find my post here but rather at :

http://www.vince2-s-ithaca.blogspot.com/

I'M MOVING !

I'm moving. Not from my condo which I continue to have paid and in good standing but moving this blog. 
It first began with a dispute w/ Google's monetizing program.  I earned enough money back in 2010 and Google paid me $100 b/c there were enough people to click onto my ads and for each ad clicked, I made money.  I earned enough money this summer to earn another $100, but this time Google would not pay it. 
So, I went into the computer language of my blog and the settings, and removed any reference of Google.
Now, I do admit that I didn't know computer language as well as I needed to know it, so I've been getting an irritating snippet, a 1/4 or 1/8  of a page that states that my website can't be found.  You can see it clearly now.  & I admit that was my error in revising the computer language. 

So, please go to http://vince2-s-ithaca.blogspot.com

This is my new & improved blog.  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks. 
Special thanks goes to my readers who have read this over the years, especially Amel, as I have always enjoyed her comments as I have my brother's. 

a strange night

I think I made a mistake last week, last Wednesday night.  I think I got a little too desperate for money. 
A mixture of pity and greed made my decision making a little suspect. 

I was trying to drive into the street where my condo is.  The car ahead stopped and then went ahead.  A 20something woman came up.  She was desperate.  She needed a ride 10 miles north.  I was going to get $25 if I gave her a ride.  Then she motioned to me that her boyfriend would be coming too. 

I drove into the Church that is adjacent to our condo's property to talk to him and "think" about the situation.   I said that I would go to my condo 1st before I take them to Chicago.  I took my leather jacket off and put a much cheaper jacket on. I put away my wallet and carried just my driver's license, ATM card and AAA card.  I knew there was a risk taking a stranger 10 miles.  I wasn't naive.

I'm too old to be that. 

I operated on 2 considerations.  I consider the odds.  The odds were LOW that I was going to deal w/ strangers with guns.  She said that she would give me money, over $20 and I needed the money bigtime BAD.  It's been that way since the fuckin summer !

So, I began the car ride w/ 2 perfect strangers by telling them that I didn't have enough gas in my car to get them to Chicago.  They were required to put about $10 of gas into the car. We pulled into the gas station, & I think I saw the 20something woman, Meegan go up to people getting gas to ask for money !!!! (ugh!).  Then, I saw her go into the station and go up to the cashier.  She paid the cashier $6, not $10. That was enough.  She told me when she came back she only had $6. 

The talking that was going on w/ John/Jr. (he goes by 2 names) and Megan was making me uneasy.  This young couple, only a few years out of high school, were uneducated and only living "on their wits".   They talked about begging money from one person to pay off the person they begged money from last week!!! The girl gave me $6 in gas money. Then they had to speak w/ "Nick".  Something wasn't right and John/Jr.  was told by NICK that he would help them not at all!  John/Jr. walked away, and I decided, since something was going wrong, to talk to Nick alone. 

I walked up to Nick, and John/JR. wanted to know what I would ask him but I waved him off and made sure he kept his distance from my conversation with Nick.  

"Nick?"  I asked, "are things going to be safe???"

"Oh YEAH! Of course, it will."
I walked into the car w/ my 2 strangers already in the car (yes, I was carrying the keys, and didn't leave them in the car, I'm NOT STOOOOO-PID!)
  They said they needed my help to talk to the guy giving them money.  Well, if I wanted my $20, I had to agree.  I pulled it off.  The money was split.  So, the last thing I had to do is take them to McDonalds in a not-so great part of Chicago. 

I dropped them off and no sooner did I drop them off, but there were flashing blue/red lights of the police on my tail !

Then something very bizaar happened.  I was so relieved to get my $20; I was so intent on just getting them to the fuckin Golden Arches of McDonalds and then...........I get stopped by the cops???????????
The cops did the new thing of taking a ton of time of having me sit there before they even talked to me. & when they did, they acted very strange.  I only had one cop encounter even comparable to this one (a female cop stopped me for speeding and acted like she wanted to get laid.  At 5'5" and 200 lbs. she apparently wasn't getting a lot of action.  But I sweet talked my way out of doing that without any ticket or illicit sex going on.  I was happily married so I wasn't going to lose my morals to please a cop). 

So, 2 African American cops came up to me with smiles on their face. 
Police: "What you doing out here?"
I replied :  "I dropped a young couple off at this McDonalds, b/c they needed a ride".
"Really?  From where?"
"Oak Forest"
"DAMN.  That's a long way.  You went through a red light."
"Really"  I didn't even see the damn light!  Were they kidding?  I know I was nervous where I drove, but could I have been so pre-occupied that I was so blind not to see a light?  No, I don't think so.  What the hell were they doing pulling me over???

The comedy continued.

"Are you doing drugs tonight?"

"No, sir" I replied.

"Do you have any dead bodies in the car?"

"No, would you like to check?

"Naaaaaaaah,...(he paused).... that's ok"
"Would you like to see my proof of insurance?"
"No, but you DO have insurance?"
"Yes, sir, am I going to be here awhile?  Should I turn the engine off?"
"Naaah, that's all man.  Be careful, ok?"
"Yes, sir you all have a good evening"
"Gee thanks"  & they drove off.
I talked to Ted afterwards since he has opted not to live w/ his Mom but rather stay at the condo w/ me.  I said, I messed up.  I didn't use good judgment even though I came away w/ $26. I was too desperate for a few bucks.  I said that sometimes parents don't set good examples, and this was one of those times.  He agreed that he wouldn't do something like that in a similar situation. 

What made it worse is that John/Jr. and Meegan said they lived next to me in an apt.  What if they are desperate again?  What if they see my car parked in front of my condo?
I'm keeping my damn car locked from now on. Sigh

Facts that show what's wrong w/ supporting the Rich & the Southern status quo on ENERGY

The current population of the United States is about 312 million persons. This came from http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

The United States used 18,690,000 barrels of oil per day in 2009. This number came from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption.
I am going to estimate oil consumption in America in 2011 to be 20,000,000 barrels of oil per day. This is admittedly a "rough number". I am trying to make conceptual points in the material below. Exactness is not required in order to do so.

The price of oil today is $85.30. This number came from http://www.oil-price.net/.

The cost of oil consumption per day in America is $1,706,000,000 (about one point seven billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per week in America is $11,942,000,000 (almost twelve billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per 30 day month in America is $51,180,000,000 (about fifty one billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per 365 day year in America is $622,690,000,000 (about six hundred and twenty three billion dollars).

The oil consumption cost per person per year in America using a rounded 312 million population count is $1995.

Coal costs about $100 per ton. This number came from  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/20/patriotcoal-idUSL3E7LK1LY20111020

Coal consumption in the United States is 1,060,000,000 tons used per year. This number came from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_coa_con-energy-coal-consumption.

The 1,060,000,000 tons of coal used per year in the United States times $100 per ton equals $106,000,000,000 (One hundred and six billion dollars).

The annual cost per capita for coal in America equals about $340 per person.

Natural gas consumption in the United States in 2010 was 24,087,938 million cubic feet. This number came from :
http://205.254.135.7/dnav/ng/NG_CONS_SUM_DCU_NUS_A.htm

The cost of natural gas in the United States is $4.27 per thousand cubic feet. This number came from http://205.254.135.24/dnav/ng/ng_pri_sum_dcu_nus_m.htm.

If a thousand cubic feet of natural gas costs $4.27, then a million cubic feet of natural gas costs $4270, which is one thousand times as much as $4.27.

The total natural gas consumption in the United States of roughly 24,000,000 million cubic feet times $4270 per million cubic feet equals about 102 billion dollars.

The annual cost per capita for natural gas in the United States equals about $327 per person.

The total cost for oil, coal, and natural gas use in the United States equals about $2660 per person.

The total Health Care Cost in the U.S. in 2009 was about $2,500,000,000,000 (two point five trillion dollars). This number came from
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/04/nation/la-na-healthcare4-2010feb04

The total Health Care Cost now in America is now running at the rate of $2,700,000,000,000 (two point seven trillion dollars). This number came from a magazine article I read not too long ago.

Total health care spending in America is expected to nearly double to $4.6 trillion dollars in 2020, from $2.6 trillion dollars in 2010.

Health care spending per capita in America is forecast to increase to $13,708 in 2020 from $8,327 in 2010.
The numbers in the above two paragraphs came from http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/28/news/economy/healthcare_spending_forecast/index.htm.

In a magazine article I read not too long ago, they had an even higher number of $8650 per person being spent on health care today in the U.S.

Even using the conservative number in the material above, our current health care cost of $8,327 per person in 2010 is more than three times the total cost of oil, coal, and natural gas use of $2660 per person in the United States.

Our total Health Care Cost in America is about 17.5 percent of GDP.

This total Health Care Cost is headed northward to 20% of GDP within only a matter of few short years.

Then it is headed further northward to 25% of GDP.

This situation continues to get even worse.

What follows is an interesting quote from our own Congressional Budget Office:

CBO projects that without significant changes in policy, total spending for health care will be 31 percent of GDP by 2035 and will increase to 46 percent by 2080.

The above came from http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/102xx/doc10297/chapter2.5.1.shtml.
In case you don't know what GDP means what follows is a definition of GDP from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product.

Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period.

Now let's contrast the above to 1960.

In 1960 there were 189,323,175 million people living in the United States.

The GDP in 1960 was about 520 billion dollars (1960 non-inflation adjusted dollars). This number came from
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=what+is+gdp

Our National Health Care Cost was about 5% of GDP in 1960.

our total Health Care Cost nationwide in 1960 was about 26 billion dollars in "1960 money".

Money was worth a lot more in 1960 than it is today.

Okay, so let us adjust for inflation.

$1.00 in 1960 had the same buying power as $7.46 in 2011. This number came from http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm.

Twenty six billion dollars of 1960 money is equivalent to about 193 billion dollars today.

In 1960, one hundred and ninety three billion dollars of "inflation adjusted money" covered the entire health care costs of one hundred and eighty nine million Americans.

What this boils down to is that in 1960 Americans were only spending about one thousand dollars of "today's 2011 dollar" per year on health care on a per person basis.

We are now spending over eight times as much on health care on a per person basis as we did in 1960.

By next year it will be almost nine times more.
And we will be spending fourteen times as much on health care in America as we were in 1960 by the year 2020.

For a person in the United States today to only be spending only about $2660 on their entire use of oil, coal, and natural gas, and be spending about $8330 on health care *over three times as much* is nuts!

And for a person in America to be spending over eight times more on health care than they did in 1960 is nuts too!

For all this "great health care" that we get in the United States, health care that costs over eight times what it did in 1960, one in six children is now considered learning impaired (learning disabled is another term).


Something is really wrong with America when our children as a whole rank so low in educational achievement vs. children in so many other countries.


Who do you blame? And how can we fix all this?

written by Allen Darman

Website: http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/

A Related Blog:

Two Persons That the OWS People's Movement Should Become Aware Of and Why (10/19/2011)

http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/two-persons-that-the-ows-peoples-movement-should-become-aware-of-10172011/

We participated, it's time to fight back

I put in my opening line, that I don't want plutocrats dominating our national capital. & they haven't quite yet, b/c of President Obama.  Plutocrat/plutocracy = rule by the rich.  Our Constitution wasn't about rule by the rich when it was made.  We didn't overcome the Great Depression and World War II by rule by the rich.

Historians agree that the GREAT DEPRESSION STARTED BECAUSE THE WEALTH DISTRIBUTION WAS DISTORTED WHERE TOO FEW PEOPLE HAD TOO MUCH MONEY. It wasn't caused by Welfare cheats or too much government.  THE GREAT DEPRESSION WAS CAUSED BY TOO LITTLE GOVERNMENT.

& NOW THE SAME THING HAS HAPPENED AGAIN. 1% of the richest percentile in OUR NATION own 50% of American wealth. 

It is for that reason that I joined Occupy Chicago.  Last night, I took my son, Ted and his friend Nate to the rally.  It's time to fight back against the lobbyists fighting for the rich.  It's time to fight against guys like Congressmen Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, bastards that care nothing about the poor and the lower middle class. They are assholes that are paid by the rich when they ran for office and work for the rich.  It's that simple.  They bought the rich's line about how to make this nation better and it was done from 2001 - 2008 when Bush was in office and he had a Republican Congress. 

Keeping the rich's  taxes too low  DOESN'T LEAD TO PROSPERITY, IDIOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE INCOME TAX RAISE OF 1993 DID CONTRIBUTE TO PROSPERITY and you don't have to believe me, believe an economic leader like Alan Greenspan, A REPUBLICAN, and the Federal Reserve chairman of the US during the 90s WHO said that the Clinton tax raise cut the deficit & that led to the nation's longest prosperity EVER .  (1992 - 2001)

HOW can Paul "Shame of Janesville" Ryan fight so hard for rich people not to even pay taxes.  How can he & other just continue to cut money for road construction and infrastructure improvements. Their real aim is to help those who financed their  campaigns and fuck everyone else.  They don't want to help the nation they want to continue to help the rich which is how it was done from 2001-2009.  Bush adm. put us in a huge hole, and they want us to believe it's all Obama's fault.

So, I participate in the Occupy Wall Street-Occupy Chicago movement.  I bought bottled water for the people that are at the Federal Reserve building at Chicago 24/7 for over 3 weeks.  I gave them more permanent markers to make signs.   I like some of the ones below, as you can see. 

the 1st 4 pictures are obviously self-explanatory.  This last picture is of the drummers.  When you go to the protest site, the 1st thing you can do is hear it, not see it.  There are the protest drums and this is Ground Zero of the drummers and the chants.  The best thing I heard all night wasn't the speeches.  It was as we were driving away. It was Ted's 13th birthday, yesterday.  As we were driving away.  He thanked me for taking me to the protest.  His friend Nate, loved it too !

this is a good icebreaker

The next time you’re at a party, try this fun ice-breaker: ask people what their first concert was. It’s always a delightful conversation topic, and typically the more cringeworthy and one-hit-wonder acts are more fun to discuss than the “cool” bands (if your first show was U2, that’s cool, but Vanilla Ice is almost more special.) I put the question out on Facebook: what was your first concert? Feel free to add your own in the comments. 

Me: CARS   saw them in 1982 in Madison, Wisconsin.  I love the fact that they were cool enough to be at Lolapalooza this year.  Too bad their co-lead singer and bassist, Benjamin Orr weren't still alive.  

Justin: Public Enemy & Anthrax at Aragon!

Joel: Starship and The Outfield, somewhere in Virginia (but not Wolf Trap...). It was 1986 and I was on a teen tour, so maybe that can be my excuse (heh).

Kate Z.: Janet Jackson

Nora: Peter Gabriel at Rosemont Horizon.

Jane: 1988: INXS

Marly: Menudo. I wish I were kidding. They were playing in el Poliedro, in Caracas.

Cheryl: John Denver. ACC Arena. 1974 or 5. Also not my idea -- but when your mom drags you to a concert, you kind of have to go

Rebekah: Liz Phair at the Vic. Fall 1995.

Daniel R.The Monkees at the Rosemont Horizon. Their reunion tour. 1986. I went with my church's teen club. I quit the club after that night.

Andy: Fishbone at Mississippi Nights. It was the nutmeg nineties.

Jonathan: Meatloaf: Rockland Community College, summer of 1978.

Elizabeth J.: Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine at Poplar Creek. I think I was nine. AWW YEAH.

Leonard: The first concert I ever went to was a Beach Boys outdoor show. My best friend's dad took us and someone threw a can of beer at my head. This would have been sometime in the late '70s. 

& someone else:...........The first concert I ever went to of my own choosing was, embarrassingly, Quarterflash. Arizona State Fair, 1982.

& do you recall either the 1st concert or your favorite concert??  you are more than welcome to discuss both.  I  love when you share...........