Obama Opinion Polls

I don't trust the public. I feel they are misinformed, have no attention span and spend all their free time watching the boob tube or facebooking about how their cat did the cutest thing.
I rarely meet anyone that actually reads good books or the newspaper everyday. But public opinion polls have no problem asking all these morons what they think. I always love the question : "is congress doing a good job?". It cracks me up. Even with mostly college educated friends, I know only a handful of folks who even know what congress does, let alone actually follows their day to day work...so why are we asking them? It's like asking my dog--"do you approve of the financial bailout?"
That said, the media is obsessed with Obama's numbers declining. I truly feel for the guy. Can the so-called "public" actually explain why they feel this way? Or did they happen to see too many misspelled protest signs and think to themselves: "well it looks like neighbor Bob doesn't like this Obama fellow, I better think that too..."or more likely--"the tabloids are saying Obama is a drunken Muslim" (hard to believe these two completely opposite ideas can be side by side in the same supermarket checkout line).
What did Obama really do that upsets them so much?? The spiraling debt perhaps. But what does "the public" want him to do about the economy? Let it crash and burn? No debt or bail outs then...just poverty.
Same with health care. Something had to be done. You can eliminate Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security or you can radically change the whole system. The public hates both options...so what again did they want the president to do about it? It's like you can't win. Do nothing and they complain, do something and they complain....
It's not like he started a mistake war or anything...so give the guy a break!

My Simple Challenge for Sarah & Glenn

Well I am sure I don't even need to use Palin's and Beck's full names for anyone to know exactly who I am talking about.....
We all know they are good at being snarky, critical, snappy and what have you--but what I don't believe they are good at is something else: world travel.
I'll be honest--I don't know Glenn Becks world travel history. But I am pretty sure Sarah hadn't seen much more than good old Wasilla up until a few years ago. And now that she does travel a bit it is in an insulated vacuum--where you see a sanitized version of cars & hotel rooms, nothing else.
What does traveling have to do with anything you may ask? Well everything in my opinion. Before you say what's right or wrong about America. Or what the people need or want, how they should live and dismantle the UN...you really need to take a good trip around the world and see what works and what doesn't. It's like the best school in the "world". Any idea you have-some other country might have already tried it. Saves valuable time.
Ask people in Canada, do they like their lives? How about in Denmark?--talk to real middle class folks. Then see what true government deregulation looks like--try some third world countries. My travel schedule for Glenn & Sarah would include a few evil "socialist countries" like France or Sweden. Then try some deregulated economic fun--like Latvia or Chile. Definitely see India. And no hiding out in fancy hotels!
Better yet, make it a reality show: Sarah & Glenn's excellent adventure....then come back and talk .

What the Tea Party Really Thinks About Average Americans

Listen up average people, and by that I mean those who make about 100,000 a year or less. Those that make more, may stop reading now.
Here's the honest thing that doesn't get discussed by political conservative types, such as the Tea Party Express. Why they really don't want to pay federal taxes...It is because they think you are a loser. That's right folks--incompetent, unable to be rich, lazy loser.

I have been reading up on conservative theory, and the pro-industry, anti-tax types all share a similar belief. The rich are simply better. They are smarter, more able bodied and hyper-active. This is the way it should be and it's not their problem if you are not like them. So they have no reason to spend even one dime on your silly little public schools (there's always private school for the rich), Medicaid or Medicare (heck, they are already covered) or any other stupid public project. Like public transportation- (get a car you lazy s.o.b.) They simply feel that when they are taxed, they are being robbed for the worst possible reason--keeping all these dumb losers on life support ("why don't you just go die somewhere" is more acceptable)

If you really knew what the rich think about everyone else, you just wouldn't vote Tea Party--no way. They hate you, but are smart enough to recruit you for their own cause. Make you shoot yourself in the foot.
So what if you were born disabled, low IQ, into an abusive home, whatever--that's your stupid problem, not theirs. And granted some people do make it out of horrible or even just plain simple circumstances to become great and wealthy people in America, no question. But many more just do not. And this my friends, is what the rich consider your moral shortcoming.

If you don't believe me, just read something like "Atlas Shrugged" from beginning to end--it will take a good year, but you can see the hate & loathing towards those who have less money. (and Reagan was a fan of Ayn Rand) You betcha! (ever wonder why the richer Sarah Palin gets, the angrier her rhetoric?)

In 2008 Sarah Palin Liked Government Bailouts!

Ugly hypocrisy. The most frustrating thing about American politics is the public's constant memory loss when it comes to political hypocrisy.
If anyone does a quick Google search of the 2008 election with "depression", Sarah Palin" and "bail out"- what you will find are her eloquent quotes about America heading for a Great Depression if we don't spend billions on a federal bail-out package.
Now fast forward to 2010, what are Mrs. Palin's favorite talking points?? How's that hopey changey thing working for you?? Well guess what Sarah--so we aren't doing super great--but Obama did prevent that other "great depression" you used to believe in, and how did he do it?? With Federal bail out money...just as your sweet lipsticked face suggested. Changey , right?

So now Glenn Beck and Palin are feeding on the public's short term memory loss and utter inability to think for themselves, about how the economy should have been 100% fixed and perfect, in what, like 12 months?? No thanks to Obama for preventing the Depression that she herself predicted.
How it's a good thing that folks like Joe Miller (running for senator of AK) will reduce Medicare (wait, wasn't Sarah all pro-Medicare just 6 months ago?) and other entitlement programs ruining our budget. Right then, that pesky military budget and those two little wars aren't bothering the budget at all. What about my pro-life stance (I am pro-American soldiers coming home alive)? Where are my constitutional rights, if I don't want to fund useless wars that just cause huge loss of life and limb?
Don't get me started on my constitutional right to happiness (and enjoy Alaska wildlife viewing) that Sarah and her cronies enjoy stomping all over on a regular basis with predator control... But that's another story....

Hungry Grizzly Bear Attack

So maybe I am not a certified wildlife expert, but I live in bear country and follow bear attack stories closely. The media sometimes plays them up as "bears gone wild" to make sure the public stays very scared of the wilderness...but if you read and closely look at all aspects of bear behavior some things just stand out.

In Alaska, many of our quasi-urban bear attacks have a common thread: startling the bear or alerting their "chase" instinct. Case in point-joggers bit in the butt, or bicyclists mauled. Silent persons speeding by bears in the woods--not a good idea.

Second aspect I have noticed, is a possible cause behind remote wilderness bear attacks--seems to be the "hungry bear" phenomena. A few years back some campers were mauled in ANWR, or even the famous killing by Timothy Treadwell appears to be caused by a desperate "malnourished bear". As far as I understand it, human doesn't taste good to bears, but if they are really, really hungry- probably the bear isn't picky.

Back East in the Catskill mountains of NY I know of a children's summer camp frequented by roaming black bears (these are not the more aggressive grizzly bears). But nevertheless, they actually cause no problems for the campers except leaving a mess, breaking screen doors and some interesting amusement for all. Always happy and well-fed on garbage, these bears seem to exhibit "Yogi bear behavior".

Now the recent Yellowstone bear mauling has reportedly involved "malnourished bear cubs". Tragic story, and makes me wonder about all the "bear proof" containers at the park. On the one hand, you don't want to encourage all that begging and garbage picking--but I can't help but wonder--aren't dumpster diving bears safer for us than crazed tent divers? It seems they can make the distinction between humans leaving behind food, versus actually being the food--and I believe most bears would choose KFC and mm's versus homosapiens.

I know my opinion seems backwards and controversial, but I often wonder how many 'hungry" bear attacks could be avoided if we just threw chocolate bars at them instead of pepper spray....

Sally Likes This

I wish this new trend would go away. The trend of capitalizing on the sheeple mentality of the people. Why is it that every so-called legitimate online news organization now rates their articles based on--"most popular", "most read", "most emailed...?" Besides the curiosity factor (like why are so many people interested in that dumb story?) It is useless and actually harmful information.
I fear it will simply dumb down all the media, as you can tell the "most popular" article is usually something like: "suburban mom gives child to grizzly bear", or "stupid celebrity is having another affair", This is not helping the information quality that we receive. And the rush to get these trivial stories to the internet press results in articles written at a third grade level. I can't even believe the grammar and spelling errors--using spell check , but not understanding the meaning of the word, has disastrous results.
Even worse, Facebook has normalized the trend to write : "Becky likes this" or whatever on every comment ever written. Good grief!! Who cares?? Becky could be a psychopath for all I know.
I thought we adults eventually grow out of the high school phase, interested in only what the popular kids are doing and thinking--apparently not. What happened to caring about what is actually best?

Al Gore and Global Warming

I'll admit I was reading a bit about the ridiculous Al and Tipper Gore divorce scandal. I'm not really interested who caused it, but that said, I am saddened by a solid-looking union calling it quits...
But moving on...this story led me to read about other Al Gore events I was not aware of--namely the California home he bought in April. This I found even more interesting than the divorce, as I firmly believe huge houses are environmental nightmares. No matter how many solar panels you have--they usually are a resource and energy drain. So I wanted to cut Al some slack and tried to research the square footage of said controversial property--is it really ostentatious or maybe just a tad fancy??

Instead I was hit by the brutal reminder that many, many Americans believe that Al Gore started a Global warming hoax. This absolutely blows my mind. I do remember a statistic somewhere about the percentage of Global warming believers in the USA declining. But what are they denying ---that the earth is warming--or that humans caused it?? Denying the earth is warming reminds me of ancient history--when people would argue about the earth being flat. Anyone who doesn't believe in climate change should just travel a bit and get off their fox news watching couch. They'll see how respected scientists all over the world agree on this topic, how certain islands are going under water, the ice caps are melting--just look people. (seeing is believing)

I can better understand the "humans caused this" factor being controversial-it's probably more vague. But who cares who caused it?? If new energy sources and carbon caps can curb this event from happening faster--why be against it??? Instead like little toddlers they argue about who broke the toy (or lying that the toy is not broken at all) instead of just cleaning it up. Weird. It just makes me worry about Americans in general and their ability to compete with international scientific minds. Are we doomed folks??