Old Macdonald Had a Farm?

Just something I saw and found interesting…

According to the USDA’s 2014 farm bill policies 79.55% of U.S. government farm subsidies go to corn, grains and soy oil. 13% goes to cotton. 3% to dairy. 2% to livestock. 2% to tobacco and .45% to fruits and vegetables.

That would make for a yummy meal of 1 loaf of bread fried in soy oil, 1 meat slider with a brush of catsup (vegetable) washed down with a sip of milk, while smoking a cigarette with a yummy bag of cotton candy for desert! (not really, because cotton candy isn’t cotton) but you could wipe your mouth with a nice soft napkin afterwards, I guess.

Why, in a free market capitalist society, we subsidize food that is not particularly good for us, let alone food that the very same USDA that subsidizes it recommends that we don’t eat very much of…is a mystery to me. Doesn’t sound very capitalistic, free or democratic does it?

With a diet like that no wonder some folks think it’s a waste to spend money subsidizing healthcare…That would be some kind of socialism wouldn’t it?!

Anyway, that’s what’s for dinner in the United States, USDA Farm Bill style. Bon appetit!

 

 

Some Things Never Change…

A while ago, after writing several blogs about guns and gun violence in America, It was suggested to me that I take a look at the homicide by firearm rate to get a clearer perspective of violence in the United States and how perhaps it isn’t all that bad.

So I checked out the statistics collected by the UNODC ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) from their 2011 Global Study on Homicide.

According to their statistics The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world – an average of 88 per 100 people. That puts it first in the world for gun ownership ( the number two country, Yemen…(great company we’re in)… has significantly fewer  at 54.8 per 100 people)

The united States also ranks 1st in the total number of all civilian firearms with 270 million.

We are also #1 in rate of ownership.

But, say gun proponents, the US does not have the worst firearm murder rate.  In fact, the US is number 28, with a rate of 2.97 per 100,000 people. Isn’t that good news? Even though we have all of the guns we don’t have the highest firearm murder rate. We’re only 28th!

And here are the winners…

Honduras…El Salvador… Jamaica…Venezuela…Guatemala…St. Kits…Trinidad and Tobago…Columbia…Belize…Puerto Rico…Brazil…South Africa…Dominican Republic…Panama…Bahamas…Ecuador…Guiana…Mexico…Philippines….Paraguay…Anguilla…Nicaragua…St. Vincent…Zimbabwe…Costa Rica…Argentina…and (wait for it)…Barbados.

Not exactly the major leagues of industrialized and sophisticated 1st World countries is it?

And don’t even ask who #29 is!…all right you asked…it’s Gaza and the West Bank.

Yes, gun advocates have something to be proud of. At least we don’t kill each other like they do in Gaza and the West Bank.

In fact you have to go way down the list before you’ll find any other 1st world countries

Switzerland was at 45, Italy 48 and Canada came in at #56…but remember this is a list of the percent of murders by firearm. Switzerland had 57 gun murders, Italy 417 and Canada 173. The United States had 9, 146…so statistics don’t always paint the entire picture.

When it comes to the total number of murders by firearms we’re 5th. Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and Venezuela beat us out…but again which of those countries would you say out civilizes us? Interestingly enough they are also all in our hemisphere (in fact 25 of the top 28 are)…you know….the one the Monroe Doctrine told the rest of the world to keep their hands off of back in 1823.

But I digress because here is the most sobering statistic of all:

9,143 Americans were murdered with firearms in 2011 but At least 31,940 people died from gun injuries in 2011. That means that 22,797 citizens of the United States died from gunshot wounds that were what?

Accidents! Unintentional! Suicide!

This is what the proper and mathematical reading of statistics tells us.

Although outlaws kill over 9,000 people every year in the US, regular law abiding citizens like you and me kill 23,000 more!

Guns do not save lives. They kill the people who own them or their loved ones or their neighbors more than twice as often as they kill intended victims…and guess what?

And as we have increased gun ownership and the number of guns in our country over the last 30 years those numbers and ratios  have been rising…and most sadly…with a bullet.

*** I wrote this post about guns in America 3 years ago and since then Congress has done nothing to attempt to reduce gun violence even though first-graders were horrifically shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. What in fact they have done is to criticize and block common-sense gun safety measures proposed by the President… until, that is, 14 more Americans were shot by 2 Muslims with guns in southern California last December. Then they decided to criticize the President for having done nothing to prevent it…like propose new laws and gun safety measures?

Now Republican presidential hopefuls, namely Mr. Donald Trump, are proposing measures to make our country safer from gun violence by making our country “Muslim free” or by eliminating the immigration of any new Muslims into our country. 

Statistically speaking you have a .000099 chance of being shot by a gun in the US. Maybe that’s why we don’t care so much about gun violence…But you have about a .0004 chance out of that .000099 chance of that person who shoots you being a Muslim… And that’s what frightens us?

Here in the United States more than likely killing people with guns at home and around the world rather than spreading democracy at home and around the world, will be our ultimate legacy. Let’s face it, Guns R Us! It’s what we do. We like to own them. We like to use them. It’s the 2nd most important thing we could think of to add to our Constitution.

So If we don’t care very much about who gets shot…why do we care so much about who does the shooting?

Trump/Bunny 2016?

New Jersey may just have found the perfect running mate for Donald Trump, should he secure the Republican nomination for president. It’s the The Easter bunny! Who recently got caught up in a mall brawl, Trump Style,  in New Jersey (of all places?!) this weekend.

It all started when a 1-year-old girl slipped out of her chair after posing for a photo with the bunny. The girl’s father reportedly shouted at the 22-year-old man in the costume, then started throwing punches. That’s when the man in the bunny costume took to action in his best Trumpian fashion, threw off his white bunny gloves, and began to throw punches of his own at the protesting dad.

How dare that father barge into an Easter celebration unannounced! This is America after all! Get your own show if you want to be in the spotlight…Everybunny knows that!

And as all New Jerseyans know, You’re nobunny till somebunny hits you! So Chris Christie, fuhgeddaboudit!

It’s all the way with Trump/Bunny 2016!

 

 

 

Penis not Included?

To Womb it may concern:

I keep seeing Facebook and Blog posts here and there about how Hillary Clinton is not the right choice for President of the United States because of the man she is married to and that any respectable woman fit for the Presidency would have divorced him by now…

So I wonder, are we to believe that because a man improperly used his penis, his wife is not Presidential material? Do we judge a woman by the man she is married too and if so, do we value or devalue men in the same way?

Over on the Republican side we have 3 men who all claim that their penises are the proper size for governing, as if such a measurement standard exists let alone has any validity. They are even arguing over whose penis is larger and who has used it the most! Donald Trump has used it to attract 3 wives already while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have only had 1 wife each.

Does that fact devalue the Trump wives or raise the value of Mses Cruz and Rubio…and is this really how we measure people? In any case they all seem to agree that owning and operating a properly sized penis correctly (politically speaking) is a prerequisite for seeking the highest political post in the free world.

Does Hillary (or any other woman) need to have a penis surgically attached to her anatomy (or one removed from her husband) in order to make her a valid candidate for President of the USA? Both options are medically possible and even acceptable now by a majority of American citizens…Does man in fact complete and define woman?

Or can a woman in the United States of America, here in the 21st century, actually possess the capabilities, intelligence and gravitas necessary to lead the country and the free world, with husband in tow, regardless of discussing said husband’s accomplishments or lack thereof, with or without penis, to become the First Woman President of the United States…

Or is First Lady, the best a woman in America can and should ever do?

I do believe that this fall we Americans will have the chance to actually answer that question for the first time in our history and while I do not know what the answer to that question will ultimately be, I am fairly certain that should Hillary Clinton win, her husband will be the first spouse in the White House to have a penis…

So America, if a penis you must have…there’s always that.

A Big, Fat Shadow

Former Republican nominee for President of the United States, Mitt Romney, spoke about this year’s leading Republican candidate for the presidential nomination. “Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, and his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House”…

Then he added…”dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics.”

And New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, 261 days absent from his job, thought to himself…

Hey, Me too!…