Steve's barking; getting my stupid on

I get my stupid on at least twice a week. I buy lottery tickets.
I believe that if only the world would listen to me, we would be living in the new Garden of Eden.
I have started something new, leaving my keys in the car as I get out.
Now I'm not ashamed of doing or thinking stupid things for I'm after all I'm a human and we humans are suppose to do stupid things and have stupid thoughts. Look at the presidents, Obama saluting with a coffee cup in his hand, Bush saluting with a dog in his hand, Regan calling ketchup a vegetable, and how about FDR ending the stimulus to soon.
The problem with getting your stupid on is the people who think that they are the all mighty perfect and expect others not to do or say stupid things. Normally there's nothing wrong with stupid things being said or done and we should not take offense as long as we learn from them or the damaged done is minimal. We learn from our stupid and some times we even feel good about our stupid (think about me buying lottery tickets).

Steve barking; let's have a nation jackass day

In the US we have days to honor just about everything and everybody.
Things like cup cake day and ice cream cone day.We celebrate Pit bull day and glutton eating hot frankfurters day ( this is celebrated in Coney Island in case you didn't know).
In New York we give special parades for special people, we have ( name a country) heritage parades,
We have a several gay pride parades, and ghost and a goblin parade. In San Fransico they have a S&M street faire. All I'm asking for is day to recognize the greatist majority in this country, more then straight people and gay people combined, that jackasses or as I said to the idiot who cut me off on the highway today, you A hole. An A hole is a jackass only by another name.
The thing about A holes is that the're just like werewolves  ther're normal most of the time but come at certain times of the month and the you have to be very careful of them.
Everyone knows a jackass, in fact most if not all the people we know are at one time or another are jackasses. I know for a fact I've turned into A hole many times in my life, and if your honest with yourself  you've probably been a jackass too at least once or twice, so is't it about time we gave a day for all of us. Let's hear it for National Jackass (ass hole) day.


*In this country there are straight people, gay people, bi people ans asexual people. That's how I can state more then straight people and gay people combined.

Steve's barking; What's wrong with the VA?

What's wrong with the VA?
Simple answer....It's a bureaucracy, the same as GE.
Nobody wants to think that the private sector is the same as the government sector (well most people anyway) but it is.
By all indications that in the VA department heads look over their shoulders and make sure that no one makes waves. Put on a happy face, brush the bad tidings under the rug so they wouldn't look bad. Do you think that GM's department heads have the same idea?
When you look at the private sector and the public sector one has to ask is protecting one's a** a human trait?
I have another rhetorical question, does a bureaucracy hinder inventiveness more then it helps?

I have something else to ponder, this more about government bureaucracy then the private sector.
Does congress setting a humongous amount of rules begging for failure?
Wouldn't it have been better if the government stipulated in it's contracts time frames, and having  companies  accountable for over runs. While I'm at it, holding companies accountable to their contracts to deliver what you said you would or be fined to the extreme of forfeiture of all monies from the contract. Lying on what you can deliver lets' bad companies drive out good. My inerts (gut feeling) tells me that's  the major screw up computerizing the paper work of the VA hospitals.

Lets not let congress off the hook, The VA needs more doctors, congress sets the budget.

Bw afraid of those saying this is how we have always  done it.
This goes for private companies as well as the public sector.

 

Steve's barking;I don't speak American English, so what

I don't speak American English, I speak Bronx English with that heavy Bronx accent. It's so heavy that my I phone can't understand me . I asked Siri to spell function and it said that isn't very nice, and then gave me the spelling of a sexual activity followed by it. So I don't speak very good English, just like those guy in Louisiana who have that Creole accent that no one can understand. What does this all mean? Not a damn thing except to say that I have sympathy for those immigrants who come from another country and have a hard time being understood.

What's with all those students who study Spanish (or some other language) for three years in high school and can only understand yes (Si' in Spanish) and perhaps know the correct pronunciation of a food (Tacos for those who took Spanish)? Is that a failure of the American education system? Huh, is it?

Steve's barking; I commented on blogs, therefore I must be crazy

Several weeks ago I came across a blog by the Heritage foundation.
The blog stated that the United States was in 12(?) place in there survey of counties economic freedoms.
In first place was Singapore, a country run by a communist country, and in third and fourth place was Finland and Denmark, two well known socialist countries.
After looking at the survey I decided to write in the comment section. I pointed out that three of the top four nations were either run by a communist nation or were in themselves considered to be socialist nations.
People never write in the comment section. As I decided that the next thing to do on my tablet was to play Candy Crunch my game kept being interrupted by John S and Peabody Dog who also wrote in the comment section of the blog. They two people seemed to ranting at each other. The first one complained that the survey couldn't be any good because conservatives didn't know how to conduct a survey. The second guy called the first guy a moronic liberal. The first one then wrote in the comments column that Peabody was a know nothing fascist pig. This went on for about 20 comments. I got no feedback at my comment.
Yesterday I came across a blog from Think Progressive.
The blog was about raising the minimum wage to $10.10 a hour. And how beneficial it would be
The blog had a video expelling that it's  a win, win situation. It would bring the recipient out of poverty, there by making the recipient ineligible for food stamps saving the government money and that the four thousand dollars extra would be spent with that money going into the economy. They used an example of a family of three with one bread winner.
Bad example, that family would lose over three hundred dollars a month in food stamps and the four thousand dollars would be taxed at over 8% for FICA for a zero sum gain to the family.
Stupid me, I pointed this out in the comment section.
After I wrote this comment I read some more blogs and went out for a walk.
I came back, opened my tablet and my Google Plus had several numbers next to it.
Opening up my Google Plus I found that several (Two) people I'll call Job Killer and YFI were ranting at each other. One complained that he hadn't got a reply in six minutes, and I thought he was writing to me.
I thought damn, don't this people have lives? But after looking the rest of the comments I think he was ranting at Job Killer.
After looking at these comments I decided to play with my old friend Angry Bird but I kept getting pings that Job Killer and YFI kept commenting on the same blog that I commented on.
The moral of this blog is don't put anything in the comment box of blogs except this one.
My few readers don't comment.
 

Steve's barking we don't use leaches anymore

We don't use leaches anymore when some one is sick, why do we use outdated economic models?
I've read stuff (whole reports) from the Cato institute and the Heritage foundation that are so incomplete they wouldn't pass the mustard of a fifth grade class yet the conclusions are relegated to facts. Are we that lazy?
I saw a debate between Ron Paul and Paul Krugman on You Tube with Ron Paul. Ron Paul stated that the Byzantine Empire lasted as long as it did because it didn't debase it coins and didn't have a large fighting force. I believed this Bull Sh*t  till I did a little research and presto nothing could be further from the truth. The Byzantine empire many a time change the gold and silver in it's coinage. The empire expanded and shrunk many times during it's existence and it fought a lot.
The people of my great, great grandfathers day believed in a lot of things and they were the norm of the time, but now we have to move on.

Steve's barking privacy and an open government?

Why are those who a complaining that government is listening in on American secrets are in general the same people who demand open government?
In a democracy they say there should be no secrets from the people.
In a free society government shouldn't know what the people are saying to one another.
Question is a free society exclusionary from a democratic society?
Question does a majority rule society a free society because those in the majority hold back the rights  of the minority ( think of the old segregation in the south)?
Question how can a press question the government about privacy of it's citizens when at the same time dumpster dive and hound celebrities ( who just so happen to be private citizens) all in the name of freedom of the press?
Why do some people complain about violation of the fourth amendment for listening in on conversation and even government reading e mails and think it's alright to stop some one on the street
and frisk them ( which by the way we have the fourth amendment according to most American history books is because the British employed stop and frisk in colonial times)?
Maybe the US government should use the Terry ruling to explain why they can legally obtain e mail records and telephone conversations.

There is a Motown record of the way I feel- Ball of Confusion.

Steve's barking I don't know much about much about global warming.

Climate change (some times know as global warming is here to stay.
I read in one of my e periodicals that I subscribe too in one hundred years Miami, Boston, and my hometown New York City would no longer exist. The oceans will rise 17 feet. I assume that means that all the Arctic Ice will melt. I don't know much of science nor  math but I guess that means that all the Arctic Ice will melt with the resulting melting ice from two opposite places at the ends of the earth equals a displacing all the ice with 17 feet of water times the whole of all the oceans. To be quite honest I don't know how many mega tons of ice there is out there and what the ratio of melted ice turning to water but I kind of think that no matter how much ice there is at the top and bottom of the world the rising of the ocean levels to 17 feet is quite an accomplishment by mother nature, especially if evaporation ratio goes up do to the excess heat.

Now I read in another e periodical from some one with a strange idea that we're having rather server storms due to the lack of floral carbons in the air. What are floral carbons one may ask, those are the things that were banned in the early seventies because they were creating the new ice age. The floral carbons in the atmosphere prevent the heat of the sun from coming down to earth, hence creating a very cold earth.
The writer of this article because nothing is stopping the sun from heating up the oceans at any given time the storms tend to be stronger. Is that true? I have no idea.    

What I do believe we have created so much carbon  gas in the atmosphere were trapping the heat from the sun like a greenhouse. It takes years for this gas to dissipate. Despite what  the top scientist are telling us we have crossed the Rubicon and the only the only way to stop carbon gas from going into the atmosphere is to end the way we live. An other way is to try to counter balance the trapped heat. As far as floods and droughts perhaps ( this will sound like science fiction) store flood water and move excess water to parched places on earth.

Steve's barking as good as isn't good enough.

We ought to hire more (name your gender, race or ethnic group) for top executive positions for they are as good as White Males.
Now with the idea that I may sound prejudice, I wouldn't hire ( name your unrepresented group) if there only as good as, I would hire them if they had a chip on their shoulders that they had something to prove. If they were more hungry then those White Males or they had proven to be better then. Because that what I want to run a company or even a lesser entity called a country. I want better then the rest.

When I look around this globe I see health care that's not good enough, we tend to compare ourselves to other societies instead of looking at what is needed and making an effort to get it done.
All the counties of the world need better health care systems.

We tend to compare our education to other counties and all countries are lacking in some form or other.
I ask myself in the United States are we catering our education to what we believe would make us stand out (this being the most likely scenario)?
Our we trying to have our education meet what is believed the education needs of the future?
What were not doing ( an impossible task) is meeting the individual student's need.

If any country is trying to be as good as the United States, they are making a terrible mistake, that's not good enough, just as the United States keeps saying that were number one, that's not good enough. The countries of this planet have got to strive to be better tomorrow and even better the next day.

Striving to be better then the best is what it's all about.

    
 

Steve's barking Unions raising the white flag

Here in America our unions are are raising the white flag.
Now one reads about Walmart workers wanting to join a union, and Walmart just giving a big yawn.
One even hears that there was a one day strike at Walmart. Sounds like the United Autoworkers holding sit ins at the big three Automakers during the great depression.
Being a good union person from a union shop were one had to pay union dues I realized that in order to be a real good union person like most things in life you need enthusiasm. Why can't unions bring enthusiasm to a younger generation? Now I'm not just talking about young pups just getting into the work force, I'm talking about some middle aged far*s. Is because the unions have lost there way? Has the worker been brain washed, that its not good to have a contract that's the same as the person next to you. Why should a person worry about being brought up on charges, that person would never do anything wrong. Does the modern worker know any of those old Union songs or even know the history of the union movement in this country.
What's wrong with the leadership of our unions, are they more interested in keeping power and closed to new ideas? What new ideas can they come up with that would excite the workers in this country that they would want to belong to a union?

Today most unions in this country are but straw dogs being used by bullies to keep the worker down.

Steve's barking at a nation of laws that aren't followed

As a proud New Yorker and one who was happy with Mayor Mike's first two terms, but one who  is angry that he has a third term. The voters of the city set a term limit ( A law that I hate, for I feel that I have the right to vote any one who at least has a record) law. So the mayor got the city council to pass a law that gave him and them the right for a third term, but only them, and he got a judge to agree with them.
Mayor Mike is now complaining about a judge who didn't let him get away with his rule by decree that establishments that are regulated by the city can not sell any soda's above 16 oz. The judge also ruled that it discriminated against soda because it didn't include more fattening liquids such as milk shakes but that's not what I'm trying to write about in this particular blog. What my complaint is that we have laws and we including our government does everything to either ignore it or interpret in a way that wasn't the reason  it was written.
In New York State we like to ignore the sixth amendment. If you look at trial dates, you will find that it's very rear when the defendant has a speedy trial
One can find plenty of examples of excessive bail in violation of the eight amendment to the constitution.
Please don't get me started on the second amendment, one would think that the supreme court justices are reading comprehensive deficient.
How many of us jay walk, or have taken forbidden drugs? Perhaps had illegal type of sex?
In my youth I can honestly say that I have done all three. There I said it, perhaps I really shouldn't get upset about those in higher status ignore or skate the law.

* Not to long ago I was talking with some people who happen to bring up that America was a nation of laws.
My attitude was so what, but I kept my mouth shut, this was what I should have said.

Steve's Barking at what's great about America

In America we can self heal faster then any other nation.
In America we can criticize the government (in most cases) with out the fear of reprisal.
America has given the opportunity for many a poor boy to become rich.
A women born in America today will probably be on equal footing with any man in twenty years.
In America faults have been corrected with out outside force.
In America the Constitution protects the minority, even if it's it's religion, race, or ideas (too a point).
America has been the land of the bold, whether it's business or politics, buying land when  the majority question your wisdom  or bringing ideas from Europe, or creating our own for manufacturing.
America has up to now embraced the innovator, the intellectually curious.
America has been a place of the idea of freedom.
America the can do nation. Lets hope it will always be that way.

One can only hope that this great nation doesn't fall pray to the bulling that can only lead to the wussification of the embarrassing of what makes us the tops.

Steve's barking at longer life or not

The mayor of New York wants every body to be physically heather so you can live longer and not be a fiscal burden.
If you work for the city you can work longer. Mentally you might be a basket case and not a very productive member of the government work force, but your lungs will be healthier, and by not drinking so much soda pop, or other sugary drinks by making them more expensive.
I'm sure the next step will be to tax sugar laced food.
Question. Doesn't this put a burden on those who can't fly off to Saint Moritz for their pleasures?

I understand that there has been a large uptick in venereal disease among senior citizens, should we lessen their pleasure by fining them for not using protection? After all it cost the health system millions if not billions to treat and could have been avoided, with a little bit of protection.

Why haven't I heard of any studies of the death rate of morbidly obese persons compared to seemingly healthy skinny people? Is this a conspiracy of those demanding pleasing aesthetics?

We are living existing longer now but are we any happier?
We have to work longer.
The majority of us are losing our saving to wise guy minority, and our little pleasures of life are being attacked and the few are making it harder and harder  for the many to have our simple pleasure.

So in conclusion, we are living less and existing more.

Steve's barkring at freedom in the gilded age

Freedom in the Gilded age, now that's a strange topic.
The reason I'm ranting about so called freedom in the Gilded age is because I've read an article on the Internet how the this country lost it freedom to progressives. Now I believe this article was taken from the capitalist fool tool. Of cause the main part of the article was about taxation, which I'm not going to get into for this particular blog. I'll save that for another time. Now this article wouldn't have bothered me so much if I didn't recall hearing some not to bright people on the boob tube saying the same thing as if the gilded age was the age of freedom.
Now if you were an African American in the South at that period of time and you couldn't smile at a white person I would say that your freedom was limited. If you were Catholic or Jewish you were bard from  certain positions, making your freedom limited. The ghost of the Molly McGuire's might argue how much freedom there was.
I don't think those who were forced out their company owned housing for talking union would agree with that position that we had freedom to speak their minds.
Those out west caught in range wars might argue the point of how much freedom there was if you were on the losing side.
Now I've even heard talk of the lasse faire government and how it brought about the great second industrial revolution in the United States, some how forgetting how the economy almost collapsed during the panic of the 1893s.  They also forgot the panic of 1907.

*Now I never really thought of myself as a progressive, I just thought of myself as a person with half a brain and a little common sense it just that  I believe more then ever we owe our freedom to progressive politics.

*I also believe that a dictatorial and or tribal form of local government takes u the slack, kind of like Somalia and Afghanistan.

* My understanding of the meaning of the Gilded Age was a phrase coined by Mark Twain,  every thing was golden on the outside but rotten on the inside.

* Wasn't free trade hampered in the gilded age, tariffs were the main source of government revenue.

Steve's barking at the most religious man on tv Bill Maher

Bill Maher is the most religious guy on tv.
Bill Maher is an atheist.
Bill Maher never advovated the killing of anyone.
Bill Maher never advocated stealing.
Bill Maher advocates closing Gitmo (G-d made man in his own image, therefore man should not abuse man, for if he does he's abusing the image of G-d).
As far as I know Bill Maher never lied about any one, nor repeated a false statement about an other human being. ( thou shalt not bare false witness).
Because Bill Maher is an atheist and doesn't believe in religion, he can't be worshipping  it like so many do. (thou shall have no god before me).


*Thank goodness nobody reads this. Don't mess with people beliefs for they'll try to kill you in the name of G-d.
..

Steve's barking at check this box

Every so often I like to give unsolicited advice to presidents and other politicians.
Recently I've given my unsolicited advice to the president (twice) and the vice president (once).
Now on their web pages they claim that some of the best ideas come from the general public, they also have a place that says check this box if you want any feedback. Of cause I want feed back I'm a grown man, I can take it if some one doesn't like what I to write, so I checked that box.
Now it would seem that the only feed back I ever got was solicitation from the DMC and from the reelection committee to elect the president. I guess their idea of feed back is give me some money.        

Why is it every time I see that Josh Brolin lookalike I want to regress to when I was five years old and had my Hopalong Cassidy outfit including six shooter and holster?   

What's with my blog? It doesn't have any videos, or even pictures for that matter.
No one knows what blogs I read and I don't have any links.
There's no writing about what did last night and I don't mention cute kids or animals, though some will say that they're one and the same.

Why do I like the naked capitalism blog?
Why do I think Dr. Krugman knows of what he writes, after all he's an economist?

Why don't I feel like editing this blog?
Cause I'm lazy.

steve's barking at health care in the US

The health care in the United States stink. Let me repeat myself the health care in the United States stinks. I'm not arguing who's got the best health care system, I'm just looking at the health care system in my country.
We really don't have enough doctors.
The insurance companies set the rates.  One company can give a doctor let say $10,000 for a heart operation, an other company gives the same doctor let say $7,000 for the same procedure, which the doctor grudgingly excepts, he'll charge both insurance companies $15,000 which some one with out insurance will have to pay but the insurance companies pay only what rates that they set. 
Every year it seems that the insurance raise their rates two or three times the inflation rate. They give the justification that doctor and hospital rates are going up yet our government wants to cut payments to doctors and  hospitals that they pay through medicare and medicaid.
Who's making out well by the U.S. health care system?
The patient? I don't think so.
The doctors and the hospitals? Some but not all.
The health care insurance holders? No way, it's pay up or die.
The insurance company? Oh yea.

Pity us poor Americans, we like to bitch and moan, but change things for the better,never.


 
  

Steve's barking at Education cheating

Cheating on standardized reading test in Atlanta.
Cheating on standardized test in Chicago.
What have these two city school system have in common?
The incentives to do well on standardized tests.
Is there a good chance that NYC teachers cheating charter schools and in public schools?
Yes?
Is there a quality control to catch cheating on the standardize test?
I doubt it.
Can we tell if our children are learning?
Only when the take the SATs or ACT and how well they do in life after high school.
I can only shrug my shoulders when I hear those arguments of how well were doing school our children in New York City schools.

*Read Freakonomics or maybe it was SuperFreakonomics about Chicago Schools.





 

Steve's barking at no Basketball or Football this fall

Oh crisp, what am I going to do this fall. The NFL has locked out their product, I mean players.
They want a new collective bargaining agreement. They want to give the players a lesser percentage then they are giving them now, I really don't know what the percentage is 60/ 40 or something like that. Maybe they want it 40/60 split. The only thing I'm sure of is that I don't believe there will be football this year. I just feel it in my gut.
The owners in smaller markets want more money from those in larger richer markets, but that hasn't been stated.
Most money is from national television revenue, which is split evenly among all teams, even those teams that no one wants to watch. There are certain teams that can charge more for fannies in the stadium then other teams can. They also get money souvenirs and team logos ect. Now (and again I maybe wrong) it seems to me those that aren't making that kind of money are just plain jealous and for they want that kind of money.  The only way they can get that extra money is by holding up the players and demanding that the players take less. They want to take money from a group that when they leave the job over 50% are broke. Of cause none of the owners are going broke, just some make more money then others. In economic terms I guess that those have nots want a bigger return for there money.
I hope I'm wrong after all look at all that revenue that will be lost (never mind the jobs will not be done)from vender's, hotels, and major manufactures like Nike that will be lost and never be made up, if there is no football played in the National Football this year.
Now let me write about an international game, basketball.
Do I believe there will be a strike (lock out) in the NBA that will last forever? Perhaps.
The league says that only 4 teams made money. I see no reason not to believe league.
Teams don't get that much money from there national TV contracts, so big market teams definitely do have an advantage, especially at making money. In that case, I kind of side with the owners who if they had any brains would split money with visiting teams from the gate. ( a socialist idea I know).
There has been talk of a hard cap, what happens if there are several injuries, those team play short handed.
Anyway this will cause the same economic problem that the NFL lock out will cause this country.
OH I forgot to mention beer consummation will go down and bars will lose patrons.
Oh I imagine marriage counselling will boom, along with hospital emergency rooms.
So much for foolish economic consequences what about my mental health?
It'll go down the tubes. I may even have to talk to the wife on days that I just like to hide out.
So guys, I'm begging you to end the lock outs, find common ground for new collective bargaining agreements. Do this for your country and that special countryman, me.

Oh well there's always college, please end the lock outs please. It's the patriotic duty for the clubs to play ball. 

There will be football this year, marriage councilling will suffer till next year.
Thank you guys.

                                                                                                                      

Steve's barking at freedom of speech in the US

We have freedom of speech in the United States, the constitution guarantees it.
Of cause the second president of the United States suspended that part of the constitution.
Of cause if your a corporation you have more freedom of speech then the average Joe and why not, they have more money then most of us poor slobs and after all were a classless society.

Unfortunately freedom of speech can only be guaranteed only so far by government. A comedian who offends a certain part of society may find it hard to find work. Same is true for television and radio personalities. What I'm trying to proclaim is that society sets it own rules and despite what the constitution states, freedom of speech in the United States maybe broad but it isn't absolute.
 The other fact, the constitution doesn't guarantee an audience as I know so well.

And so I've written an other boring, self serving piece of dreck. (garbage)