Porn Versus Prostitution

I was flipping through the channels recently and came across one of those "Cops" shows. In this particular episode, vice was pulling prostitution stings in Las Vegas by posing as "Johns". One of the girls arrested in the show was an 18 year old fresh out of high school from San Diego. She said she was raped 14 times so far in her young life. She also went on to say that all of the men who raped her wore condoms except for one, who is now the father of her 3 year old baby. By doing the math, she was raped by an adult at age 14 or 15.

This is the sad state of affairs for so many young girls.

Obviously, we need to do more to prosecute adults who engage in having sex with children. However, this particular episode sparked a mild debate between me and my girlfriend. 

The girl in question also claimed to have been arrested a few times prior for prostitution and she adamantly expressed that she intends to quit when she earns/saves up about $100,000 dollars. Her comment sparked the debate. I turned to my girlfriend and asked, "If she wants to earn $100,000 dollars, then why doesn't she just go back to California and work in the porn industry? 

With the big boom in the porn business, especially due to the internet, I would think going on auditions for the adult film industry would be a bit more lucrative than walking the streets of Vegas and trading a sexual encounter for a mere $60.00. (Which was the price she gave to the undercover officer in the show.)

I mean, think about it, if I were a female and I was going to trade sexual favors for money to make a living, then I would probably do it the legal way. I would become a porn actress. At 18 years old, i would think I would be something of a hot commodity. Provided I had fairly good looks, which this girl in question was. She could have used a shampoo, but other than that, she was quite attractive. 

So why do girls prefer "street walking" for chump change over starring in her own adult movie? I hear the work for the adult entertainment business is rampant. Or even perhaps start dancing at mens clubs? Exotic dancing can be a lucrative option too. 

My girlfriend had a different take on the subject matter. She looked at me confusingly. "That's what you got from watching this show?"

Now I became confused. "What?"

She shook her head. "The bigger question here," she said, "is why has this 18 year old girl chosen prostitution to begin with?"

It would seem my girlfriend was more focused on the fact that a girl who just started her adult life has started it by going into the sex for money business. And she raised the even bigger question, "Why isn't anyone in law enforcement concerned enough to go after the man who raped her when she was a child? Or any of the rapists for that matter?"

Very good questions indeed.

Prostitution has been around since the beginning of man, I'm sure. I can picture it now, our early ancestors gathered in their caves and squatting near a fire trying to add up all their Wooly Mammoth bones to see if they had enough to purchase a sexual favor from "Utonga" (Grunts) who happens to be the prettiest cave girl in the clan and still single. Perhaps her asking price was a femur, a tusk and two ribs bones for an extended reach-around and slap happy gang bang. (Who knows?)

Still, here in America, it is sad to know that young girls across the nation are being neglected and raped and feel that the only way to earn a living is to have sex with strange men for money. We can do better than this people. Can't we?

Okay, I get it that for some of these girls, sex for money is something they might want to do. In my opinion, I actually think prostitution should be legalized on a federal level. It should be federally regulated like alcohol and tobacco maybe, or take the blue print from legalized prostitution in parts of Nevada. This could actually help out our struggling economy where taxes would come into play. Same goes for marijuana. I think it should be legalized too. Beer is and it's a drug. When was the last time you read about someone being charged with "DWH"? (Driving While High) Now compare that to how many times people are getting charged with "DWI". (Driving While Intoxicated)

Now do your own math. 

But an 18 year old girl? Who has already been raped 14 times? And is working the streets as a prostitute? How about instead of arresting her and building up her rap sheet, we, as a society, help this young lady to get out of that vicious cycle she is establishing for herself in her young life? How about we work to get her trained for employment? Teach her some skills that she can use towards gainful employment the legal way? How about we work to help her rebuild her self esteem and self worth? Because she has a young 3 year old child, if we keep processing her through the legal system, how long before her daughter takes up the sex trade? 

I look at this young adult and see potential being wasted and thrown away. I see our system discarding a perfect opportunity to catch this girl now, while she is still in her adult infancy, and get her to the point where she can be a productive member of society rather than a career criminal that she has already begun to establish for herself. 

There lies the problem with our society.

The "no child left behind" program is exactly what I thought it was when it first started up in the early 1990's, nothing but garbage. This child somehow got left behind, and now, we are leaving her behind again! There's also a pretty good chance that her 3 year old will grow up and fall in between the cracks as well. Talk about a job well done America. 

Since this girl appears to have conceded to her lack of employment skills on a legal level, she has concluded that her best bet (and only gainful skill) is street prostitution. This only showcases how lost and confused this young lady really is. We all know that she's never going to get rich by being a "street-walker". Her best bet to get rich in the sex trade is to work legally in the adult entertainment business either as an actress and or exotic dancer. Not that this is any better, but it beats the path she is currently traveling. Correct? 

Or maybe we could do a better job of catching those who fall through the cracks and invest in turning them around. Especially if they have yet to get started on addictive drugs. This girl in question has yet to go into that scene. If we don't do something to reach out to this young lady, within the next few years, she's going to have a bigger problem than just prostitution. And so will we as a society. And let's face it, we need to do a much better job as human beings to prevent these young girls from thinking that sex for money is their best contribution to the world. We need to build their self esteem. 

I know times are hard for many people in this country given the current condition of our corrupted political system, but this is supposed to be America God-damn it. We can do better. Much better!

Can't we?

I'm Carroll Bryant .... and this is The Looking Glass.

Things We Learned Today:

* Too many kids are falling through the cracks

* No child left behind program is and always has been, a joke

* Even America needs to do a better job protecting girls from rape

* We need to build girls self esteem up when they're young

* We need to work on breaking the trend of career criminals when the opportunity presents itaself

* Being a porn star is better than being a street prostitute

* America should be better than this

 

The Verdict: America On Trial

So it's official, George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. As I allow this to sink in, I find myself reflecting to how it all began. For me, when this incident first occurred, I found myself on the side of Trayvon Martin. Like so many, I tried to reason with myself that George Zimmerman was guilty because of two things, first, he got out of the car. Secondly, he was carrying a gun.

Like so many others, I got caught up in the emotional aspects of this case. It wasn't long before I was able to stand back and away from that emotion and began looking at it from a different perspective. The reason for this was; I realized that I was taking the same side as the racist organization known as The Black Panther Party. I also realized that I was on the same side as Al Sharpton, one of the biggest racists in the country. This drew red flags for me. And because of these red flags, I had to look at this from the side of rationality rather than emotion.

You see, when racists get involved and start pulling the race card when it had yet to be established that race was a factor, then it's time to reevaluate the situation. That's just what I did. In this process, I began to look at this case from a legal standpoint.

While it was already established early on that young Trayvon Martin clearly wasn't doing anything illegal that dreadful night, I turned my attention to George Zimmerman and what it was that he did that was illegal. Part of gathering this information was for me to talk to some community watch people in my area. After all, George Zimmerman was the captain of his community watch and his position was that he was following protocol as captain of his community watch. It turns out that he he didn't break any laws that night either.

First, he spotted an individual of whom he was not familiar with walking down the street in a community where there had been a lot of recent break ins. Obviously, Mr. Zimmerman had no idea that it was a 17 year old kid just walking home from the store.  Did Mr. Zimmerman profile Trayvon for being black? Did he profile him for wearing a hoodie? Did he profile him for being black and wearing a hoodie? .... Probably so, but that doesn't make George Zimmerman any more of a racist than Trayvon referring to George as a "cracker". But because we now know that Trayvon used the racial slur "cracker", means that maybe he too, profiled George Zimmerman.

George Zimmerman also failed to break any laws when he phoned police about this suspicious individual. Nor did he break any laws by getting out of his vehicle. He also failed to break any laws by carrying a gun which he had a permit for. So when it came to breaking any laws at this point, none were broken by either party. And yet, somehow, the outcome of these two individuals meeting came to a deadly conclusion.

Why is this?

This is when I began to realize something awful was going on. Something that I think everybody is overlooking. While the emotional aspects of this case rages on, the obvious reason for why this situation went down in the manner that it did fails to register with very many people. Sure, the obvious reasons are there for us to pick at and attack, but sometimes, we can't see the forest for the trees. 

For some strange reason, I did something I never did before. I decided to follow this trial. Something inside of me was saying that there was something bigger, more sinister going on here than what first meets the eye. I never did this before. Not with O.J. Simpson, not with Scott Peterson, Casey Anthony, or even with Jodie Arias. I also stay far, far away from the evil Nancy Grace. But this trial, that of George Zimmerman, I was compelled to follow all the way. 

Maybe it was because the first prosecutor of choice turned down this case for lack of evidence. Or maybe it was because the police chief of Sanford county was fired for not issuing an arrest warrant for George Zimmerman for lack of evidence . (Later on, on the second day of jury deliberations, the I.T. director of the Florida State Attorney's Office, Ben Kruidbos, was fired for testifying that the prosecution team withheld evidence from the Zimmerman defense team.)

All of this smells of something horrible going on behind the scenes. I guess I wanted to get to the root of that smell. While watching the trial, I did indeed discover what that smell was. 

I know first hand what it is like to called a racist by someone who doesn't even know me. I was called a racist by a person whom I suspect to be a racist themselves. I say this because, anyone who calls another person whom they don't even know a racist when no such evidence is presented, are themselves a racist at heart. Or just plain ignorant. Or both. But that's just my opinion or theory. And based on facts that of which I have learned through my years of life on this planet, and the foundation of what we know regarding psychology nowadays, I'll stick to that opinion or theory. None the less, I didn't see anything racist coming from George Zimmerman's actions. Not even the FBI found any evidence that George Zimmerman acted from racism in their investigation. Yet, many people continue to pull the race card in this incident. 

But why?

I know and understand that there still remains one major issue in this very bizarre case. A case where neither individual was really guilty of any law violations yet, a young man lost his life because of it. So, if neither of the two individuals involved were guilty of any wrong doing, then how did Trayvon Martin end up dead as a result?

The answer most will say in response is - "Because George Zimmerman pulled the trigger". - And I so much want to say that also, however, as according to the definitions of the Florida Law of "stand your ground", George Zimmerman acted accordingly within that law. THEN IT STRUCK ME! George Zimmerman didn't pull the trigger on Trayvon Martin that fateful night, the state of Florida did. 

Confused? ... Then allow me to explain.

First, let me ask this question, why does Florida have a "stand your ground" law in the first place? Why would Texas have it? Or any state for that matter? Don't we already have it in the constitution of the United States? From that constitution, don't we already have the right as American citizens to protect ourselves and others and our property with lethal force if need be? And don't we have a second amendment right to bear arms? .... So why do we need a "stand your ground" law? 

You see, I figured it out. I realized that if the state of Florida did not have a "stand your ground" law then George Zimmerman wouldn't have been able to stand behind it in his defense. And maybe, just maybe, George Zimmerman wouldn't have killed Trayvon Martin that fateful night if he knew he didn't have that law to stand behind in the first place. 

Think about it.

Then comes the question, who voted for the "stand your ground" law in the first place? And why did the state of Florida feel the need to make "stand your ground" into law? Was it because of the democrats always attacking our second amendment rights that the state of Florida, and its citizens, felt the need for such law? ... This is what got me to thinking about the involvement of politics being largely responsible for the death of an innocent teen. That and the involvement of the U.S. Department of (In)Justice financing racial demonstrations against George Zimmerman. Oh no, Mr. Zimmerman didn't pull the trigger that dark night, America pulled the trigger! I pulled it! You pulled it! We all pulled it! And unfortunately, our whole country, government and politicians pulled that trigger that night which resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin.

The death of young Trayvon Martin isn't just on the head of one George Zimmerman, it is on the head of all Americans. We have allowed our political parties (democrats and republicans) to divide this country. This can be widely seen by the fact that I noticed democrats calling for Zimmerman being guilty and republicans declaring him not guilty. This case had nothing to do about race, but everything to do about politics and the huge divide between the people of this country. And who is most responsible for this divide? Politics and the media. And the U.S. Department of (In)Justice.

The first thing we should have done in the Trayvon Martin death is condemn and refute any involvement by Al Sharpton and The black Panther Party. We, as a nation of people, should have never allowed these racists to enter the picture in the first place. But this issue didn't start with George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, it began many years earlier when we the people of the united states allowed our government to separate themselves from us. This situation began when the American people allowed the American government to become its own entity, and it began when we allowed our politicians to divide us as a nation. We allowed this to happen when we began blaming guns for killing people instead of holding those who use guns to kill responsible for their individual actions. We allowed this to happen when we as a nation allowed the democrats to attack our second amendment rights. 

Let this be a wake up call for America and Americans. Our problems within our justice system isn't George Zimmerman, or people like him. Our problems reside in our government and our non-commonsense laws that we the people allow our politicians to enact. Our problems surround our political system. And our political system allows things like this to occur. The only way to fix our justice system, and to prevent what happened to Trayvon Martin to happen to anyone else is to change the structure of our political system. To get rid of both parties, democratic and republican, who only work for themselves instead of the people of this nation. 

No more evidence is needed than what I saw in this trial and everything that surrounded it. The disgraceful manner in which the prosecution went about their business in their case against George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman shouldn't have been the one on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin, but our government should have been on trial. We should have been on trial as a nation for the death of this young man. 

When the verdict came in, I admit, I wept. But I didn't weep just for the lost of an innocent life that is Trayvon Martin, nor did I weep for what George Zimmerman willl now have to face for the rest of his life .... I wept for a nation. A nation of ignorant people who will more than likely continue to use race as their weapon, never to realize that the true weapon used against young Trayvon martin wasn't the gun that George Zimmerman held in his hand that night, or any possible racist emotion, but the weapon of politics used to divide a great nation against itself.

We are all in this world together people. We either learn to live by the message of the late great Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., which was that ALL people are entitled their rights, human dignity, and respect through love, peace and understanding, or we die by by our own hands of hate, racism, and division established by the American government and American politics.

Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. didn't just stand up for the rights of black people, he stood for the rights of ALL people, which includes womens rights as well. We are all equal to the rights of what every human being deserves, and are entitled to. If we don't change the ways of our political path (or structure) we currently find ourselves on, then expect more George Zimmerman's in the future. And while you're at it, expect more Trayvon Martin's too. 

This case wasn't about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, it was about a country divided. Divided by its politics and ignorance. 

God bless Trayvon Martin

God bless George Zimmerman

God bless the United States of America

(We sure could use it right about now)

I long for the day these tears of pain stop rolling down my face

We are not a world of black and white - but rather - a world of human beings

Love, peace, and understanding must prevail or we are doomed

Unite, not divide  

I'm Carroll Bryant .... and this is The Looking Glass.

Things We learned Today:

* Carroll Bryant weeps for all of mankind.

Marvin Gaye - "What's Going On?"

Political Exploitation

I don't know about anyone else, but I for one really hope that our politicians would stop exploiting tragedies to push their party agenda. Of course, I am talking mostly about the Newtown tragedy, but this pretty much goes for all major tragedies that occur in America.

I felt the same sense of grief as the rest of the nation did when that gunman did what he did. I got just as emotional about it too. But just like we should never shop for groceries on an empty stomach, we should never create / pass laws directly after a tragedy, or based off of emotion.

Ever since this senseless and horrific act, I have heard nothing but our politicians trying to pass laws based on emotion stemming from this tragedy. They speak of it every time they want to push their party gun law agenda. I see this nothing more as exploitation of those who died that dark, dark day. I for one would be outraged if any of the victims were my friend or relative. In fact, I am outraged anyway by it. And why the parents of those children would allow their deceased loved one be exploited like this, I will never know. I'll never understand why anyone would allow this kind of behavior to take place in America after a tragedy without an out-cry.

Laws should never be created and passed out of emotion. Laws should never be identified with tragedies. Laws should be made based on practicality and result. Meaning; Does the law do what you intend for it to do? The gun laws our politicians are putting together and the tax payer money being spent to do it is nothing more than a ruse and a waste. These gun laws are not going to solve the problem. They are only being put together for two reasons: 1) It's an effort or gesture to ease the pain of the families of the victims and 2) To push a radical party agenda. That's it!

I seen this after Littleton, Colorado as well. It's every time something like this occurs, our lawmakers rush some impractical law to the table. This is why our country is in the trouble that it's in. Too many times Americans get so jacked-up on emotion that we go right ahead and push to pass some kind of hokey-pokey law that not only costs us millions of dollars to implement, but ultimately doesn't do what we intended it to do. Then all we do after that is look back at our mistake and pretend we didn't make it until another tragedy comes along and we make the next mistake which is nothing more than the old mistake we made the last time.

It's a vicious cycle. And it needs to stop.

And another thing that needs to stop is our politicians (and media) exploiting tragedies like Newtown to push their emotionally charged and party charged agenda's. More importantly, Americans need to force our politicians to stop it.

When tragedies such as Sandy Hook occur, we just simply need to mourn and move on. Then look back rationally - without being so emotional - and figure out what we can do to lower the risks of such things from occurring again. Try and figure out the best way to initiate "preventive action". Trust me, the answer will never come when you are emotional about it.

It's just like this so called war the politicians have declared against obesity. Some rogue politician gets emotional about it and comes up with the bright idea to ban 32 ounce cups. Yeah, that's not stupid. And it happened when politicians got all jacked up about tobacco, and in the process, got the rest of America all jacked up about it too and presto! Now look at our financial situation America. Yeah, that wasn't stupid either, was it? And don't get me started on the sexual predator registry law that also assisted in bankrupting the nation. All of these sex laws were the by-product of our emotional state. The best law we got in the form of prevention was the only one that wasn't emotional based, and that's "Amber's Law". (More specifically, the "Amber Alert") The rest of them pretty much doesn't do anything in the form of prevention. Maybe Megan's Law.

So you see, when a tragedy comes along, we have to take in a collective breath, go through the process of mourning and once our emotions have subsided, then take a logical and practical approach to solving a problem. 

So please, Americans, media, politicians, can we please stop exploiting our nations tragedies every time one occurs? Please? It's just pathetic and sad and really pissing me off. Show some respect, and let the dead rest in peace. If you want to honor their memory by passing new laws, then do so when the emotional aspect from the tragedy has passed so we can make better laws. Quality of law is better than quantity. Let's stop wasting time, money and disrespecting our dead. Let's also stop associating laws with tragedies. There is simply no call for it. We would doing ourselves a lot more good, and would be showing our lost loved ones a lot more respect by passing laws that actually work as opposed to passing laws that do nothing to help prevention, and are just fluff, simply to ease our hurting.

I'm Carroll Bryant ... and this is The Looking Glass.

Things We Learned:

* Americans pass too many laws based on emotion and not sensibility

* Americans never learn from the past and keep making the same mistakes

* Quality of law is better than quantity    

   

Obesity: Why You Are Fat

Here is a question for you: If you were trying to get your child to live healthier, would you want them to stop drinking a drink that has 39 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving, and replace it with another drink that has 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving?

Before you answer, and before I blow your mind, let’s talk about obesity.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to push city legislation to ban 32 ounce sodas. His reasoning? To help combat obesity and diabetes. My question is – what is his motive? Trust me when I say, no politician gives a rats ass about your health, my health, or anybody’s health outside of themselves and their friends and family. So again I ask, why does he want to do this?

I think it is just another step forward for the “progressive” movement in America where the extremists of the Democratic Party (Progressives) are really trying their best to insult the intelligence of the American people and or continue their quest to take away personal choice from the American people.  (I.E. – Communism/Socialism.)

That or, Mayor Bloomberg is just plain stupid and or a liar.

Here is why:

Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of these “progressives” keep yapping about how junk-food, fast-food, greasy food, sugary drinks are all making Americans obese. These people couldn’t be any more wrong! Food is not our health problem. It is exercise.

Let me say that again – IT IS EXERCISE!

But why have Americans, adults and children alike, stop exercising? Oh, I don’t know, let’s think for a moment. Here, better yet, let me tell you a story:

When I was a kid, do you know what me and my friends did when we got home from school? We went outside and played. Not for a lousy hour like these nitwits are trying to do with these ridiculous commercials that stress “60 minutes of play”. While they have good intentions I guess, I can’t help but to shake my head and chuckle. When I was a kid, we played for hours on end outside. From 4PM to about 9PM. Every single day! And you couldn’t find me anywhere on the weekends or in the summertime.

So why aren’t our kids playing outside anymore? Why do we have to always try and trick them into it or something? Well, because it is all we can do to distract them from their X-Boxes, or their iphones, or ipads, or Kindle’s, or laptops, or desktops, or whatever latest version of technology we have to distract our kids with (and ourselves) that requires them to sit down on their ass for hours on end.

I didn’t have those things to distract me when I was growing up.

Granted, I ate just about as much junk food as kids today probably eat, the only difference is – I burned off those calories and fat grams with extended physical activities like baseball, football, basketball, hiking, or whatever with my local friends. And also, we weren’t scared into our homes by the media and government officials with the “cry wolf” syndrome known as “sexual predators will get you”. I mean, everywhere you turn the channel there seems to be some fruit cake talking about child abductions like they occur every minute of every day in every city and town.

Hey, we had our share of child abductions too when I was a kid. In fact, there was a girl who lived within a couple of blocks from me and went to my school who was abducted. Fortunately, she was released and found and the guy was caught, but nobody tried to use a scare tactic against the rest of us kids to make us scared to go out and freaking play.

Listen up folks, this may surprise you but, not every man walking the streets wants to rape your kid. Just saying. Child abductions occur to about one percent of the population – maybe! - yet if you went by the media and government officials, you would think they occur to the tune of 90 percent. My point being this – we make our homes little prisons for our kids. We give them electronics to pass the time away so they can text and what not. For the majority of the parents out there, you actually encourage your kid to get fat without maybe knowing it. So if you want to know what is making your kid fat (or yourself) then now you know it is technology.

Let me say that again. TECHNOLOGY IS CAUSING OBESITY!!!

Did you hear that Bloomberg? Progressives?

So – now that you are armed with this knowledge, then why are you attacking sodas? Why are you attacking my freaking double bacon cheeseburgers and chilli-cheese fries? Hands off you communists! Hey, I have been thin as a rail for all of my life since until my car accident when I had to take it easy for a year or so and ultimately, spent more time on the internet and my writing that I rose to about 250Lbs. but now coasting at around 230. For a six foot three inch man in his late yadda yadda’s, that aint bad. (And a head full of non-gray hair) LOL So if I decide that I want to get fat in my later years say …. In ten or 15 years perhaps, then I say that I have earned the right to get fat. So leave me alone democrats and stop trying to make personal decisions for me. My health is none of yours or anybody else’s business. And regardless of your attempts at Obamacare, it just isn’t right for you to go around insulting America’s intelligence.

You “progressives” are telling the same lies that you told back in the late 1990’s that smoking was destroying our health care system because of all the “lung cancer” cases. Of course, that ended up being proved a lie because our health care system is worse off now than ever before. The truth is; our health care system is screwed up because we allow health care providers to jack up the prices. The health care industry isn’t regulated and it needs to be. (Just like oil companies and gas prices need to be) But that is a problem caused by our career politicians who take contributions by these special interest groups to “look the other way” – and or pass laws that benefits them and sucks for the American people and screws them over. (The car insurance law was just the beginning, now it’s health care insurance and later, home insurance, renters insurance and who the hell knows what else these communists will come up with to pass into law something to make us “buy” a product from these special interest groups.)

I’m still trying to find the freedom here folks.

If you think I am blowing smoke up your ass, then consider this: These brainless toads of the democratic and republican extremists lobbied for soda machines to be removed from public schools because they have 39 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving and they replaced them with Snapple drinks that have 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving.

Are you kidding me? Don’t you people ever do your research? Are you going to spend the rest of your lives believing politicians? Hell man, it almost seems like instead of looking out for our health, they are trying to kill us. Or at least, our children. Really? Remove drinks with 39 grams of sugar and replace them with drinks that have 40 grams of sugar?

This is why I have no respect for politicians anymore. This is just utter nonsense. It goes beyond stupidity if you ask me.

With American politics and our “career politicians” – it is one lie after another. It is finger pointing. It is always the other guys fault and it is just simply put, stupid beyond comprehension. What’s next? Replacing our 100 grams of fat hamburger with a by-product replacement burger that has 101 grams of fat?

How much you want to bet that when they do, they will pass a law requiring us to “buy” that burger or else pay a lofty “tax’ penalty?

Wise up people. Stop being stupid. Stop being blind. Stop being played by politicians.

NY TIMES ARTICLE: Sugar Drinks 

                                I’m Carroll Bryant … and this is the Looking Glass.

Things we learned today:

* Schools across the nation removed sugary soft drinks and replaced them with drinks with more sugar

* Technology (and laziness) is the biggest factor contributing to obesity

* America has to get rid of the "career politician" if it wants to survive

* NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg displays communistic traits

Democrats Versus Republicans: What Happened After Clinton?

This is a rant. It is my rant. It is my rant against our political parties in America. For the record, I am not a democrat. I am not a republican. I am not an independent

I am an American!

It is a rant to demonstrate that I have had enough of this democrat and republican stupidity that has embarrassed this country now for who knows how long. Both sides think that they are right about everything all the time and the other is wrong about everything all the time. Here is a news flash for you idiots of both parties; No one is right about everything all the time and no one is wrong about everything all the time. Both parties have brought our country into the mess that it is currently in. Both parties are destroying this country. Both parties are at fault. The two biggest idiots who have contributed the most to the decay of America is MSNBC and Fox News.

Now …. On with my rant ….

It’s the age old question: What happened since the Clinton administration? Think about it, I mean, back in the 1990’s, when Bill Clinton was elected president, we were looking for jobs in America. During Clinton’s administration, America started getting those jobs. In my lifetime, there was no more prosperous time than during the presidency of Bill Clinton in the 90’s.

During the 90’s, I had a plethora of jobs to choose from. It was an employment smorgasbord if you will. This worked out great for me. I was working through three different temp companies, getting jobs here and there that fit my schedule. I liked to travel in those days of glory so I wanted to work sparingly. A few weeks here, a few weeks there, a few months here, a few months there, and in between I would take off and travel around.

I remember going to places such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or take off to Cancun or Florida for spring break. If the mood struck me, I would go to California or where ever I wanted to go. I was young and free and willing to do or try just about anything. It was a wonderful life. And every time I would return from one of my crazy adventures, I would go to the temp service and they would send me out to a new job for however long I wanted and with great pay to boot. I would get to work my hours, my shifts, my days for a time period of my choosing. I was single and loving every minute of it.

It was a grand time. A time of excess. Jobs were available left and right. In fact, there were more jobs available than what could be filled. I didn’t like the thought of being tied down to one company. I didn’t like to always work overtime. Working through the temp services, I had the luxury of refusing extra hours if I had other plans. Which often times, I did have other plans.

I watched as those around me got married, had children and were working their butts off for their family. That’s what they wanted, I always assumed, so yay for them. It appeared as though everybody was winning in those days. Things were good. The democrats were looking good also. President Clinton, you did good sir. Not that the republicans weren’t trying to kill those good times. They did everything possible to try and destroy Clinton’s administration with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Quite frankly, I couldn’t have cared less that Clinton was getting some intern tail. Our economy was clicking on all cylinders and if the trade off was that my president was getting laid in the Oval (oral) office, then fine with me. Just keep the jobs coming. The impeachment by the republicans against Clinton was a big shame of our political structure. If only it would have just stopped right there.

Then came President Bush and the republican lunacy. Everything changed. I saw the problems that were forth coming and I am half ass where politics is concerned. But if I could see the end of paradise approaching with the Bush agenda, the republican agenda, then why couldn’t they? And why couldn’t the rest of America?

Sometimes I think Americans just like the smell of their own bowels because we spend most of our time with our heads inserted in our asses. I’m just trying to figure out why that is. The next thing I know, there is a war against tobacco. The argument was that it was killing our health care system. So the communists created laws that would lead to raising sales tax on tobacco products and lawsuits were filed left and right against tobacco companies because apparently, so many “ignorant” Americans didn’t know that by putting cigarette smoke in your lungs over a long period of time would lead (or could lead, or increase the possibility of) to them getting lung cancer and or other forms of cancer. Hell, I knew this at 17 years old, the time when I actually started smoking. My first clue was the insane coughing I experienced the first time I took a puff of my first cigarette. (Keeping in mind that I started smoking cannabis long before I ever started smoking cigarettes, and it still made me cough.) But I knew it wasn’t a good thing. So why didn’t everybody else know this? Why did they need the Surgeon General to tell them this?

Common sense people - acquire it, utilize it.

I think back and believe that this was perhaps the time when Americans started their desire to be coddled by their government. To be told that they are stupid by the people they elect. Now Americans are addicted to it. They yearn to be called stupid by their elected officials and apparently, they like it.

As always, I knew this health care claim was BS. And it was later proved to be so because now, after all of these years, our health care system is worse off than ever. But if that wasn’t enough, they (republicans and democrats alike) then decided that we needed to invest billions into a sexual predator data base and make convicted sex offenders register with law enforcement in order to “protect” the children. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am all for protecting the children, but I am not for a program that costs billions of dollars to fund and still doesn’t protect the children and quite frankly, making sex offenders register with law enforcement does not do a damn thing to protect the children. We now have over a million people registered as sexual offenders and the list continues to grow every year and keeping track of all of them is becoming close to impossible. In fact, the whole program soon got abused and every guy that looked up a girls skirt on a windy day is being slapped as a sex offender. About 20 percent of all registered sex offenders probably shouldn’t even be on the list. Then we started registering children as sexual offenders when a 17 year old has sex with a 15 year old as was a case in Georgia about 6 years ago. A program that was started to protect children from adults became an abused weapon to turn children into sex offenders for them being kids. And that is the nature of our politics in America.   

Not only did the war on tobacco cost us millions (if not billions) of dollars in lost revenue from tobacco sales tax, and jobs lost from businesses going belly-up from the ban of public smoking to boot, we increase our expenditures with this sexual predator data base system.

So I watched as restaurants and convenient stores and wholesale outlets, along with night clubs and diners and ‘mom and pop’ shops started disappearing. My neighborhood started to look like some deserted cow-town or something what with all the boarded up buildings that sprung up, and for the most part, are still boarded up to this day, and I saw the coming of the end of our paradise.

My friends were finding it harder to find and keep their jobs. All of those houses, cars and electronics they bought with credit, throwing them into a financial “dire straits”, was finally coming back home to roost. I started to take my own actions to get rid of stocks, bonds and investments. Then came 911, and with it, the war against the terrorists in Afghanistan. If that wasn’t enough, the lies from President Bush, vice-president Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld – throwing us into a war that we not only couldn’t afford, but should have never started in Iraq. All I heard was “They have weapons of mass destruction.” And all that was proven was, “There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Thanks republicans.

Our jobs were lost, our local governments went to shit, our infrastructure went to even more shit, the unemployment level shot up like a junkie with two needles, and the war between the democrats and republicans got worse and more childish with each passing year.

Really? All of you so called “experts” and college grads, politicians and financial wizards didn’t see the writing on the wall? Really?

Please refer yourself to my earlier statement about Americans savoring the flavor of their anal passages.

Greed finally caught up with America and Americans. We are perhaps the most greedy of species and at the same time, linger in our contentment.

Fortunately, I saw it coming and took my own initiative. Meanwhile, I watched the rest of America and other countries who were (are) foolish to follow the steps of Americans begin to fall apart where their economy is concerned, and turn a blind eye to their greed and stupidity. It soon became common practice to not hold ourselves responsible for our own words or actions. But rather, point the finger at somebody else and  say that it is their fault I make stupid mistakes and we need our government to tell us what to do and how to do it.

Now look us at, America, and I mean, really take a look at ourselves. We are one sorry of an excuse, aren’t we?

So finally, the Bush disaster came to an end and the country was looking for leadership once again like they got from the Clinton administration. What else could we do but turn to the democrats again in hopes they could pull us out of this mess the republicans got us into? What other choice?

Enter Obama. That’s right, Barack Obama. Enter the promises that he made to start cutting down the deficit, create jobs and get our economy back on track. “No more politics as usual.” He said. He preached. He promised. In the process, blaming the Bush administration for everything instead of sucking it up and working for a solution. A real solution!

Barrack Obama, democrats – you fail!

I look around and still see so many out of work. I see taxes going up. I see more and more of our rights being taken away. I see the progressives (another word for communists – The republican word for communist is “Tea Party”) forcing us to buy health care insurance. And that “Obama-Care” system is going to take us down a darker path even further. Gas prices are soaring, inflation inflating, no middle class, and most certainly, no freaking answer. I see things getting worse. This is when I realized, it will only keep getting worse because our politicians are more about arguing with each other and their own party agenda that they don’t have the time to work on the problems they were elected to work on for the American people. Evidently, in order to fix this mess they have to pass more laws that takes away more of our rights and freedoms. Really? That’s your answer Dems, GOP? I look around and see our national deficit grow by three trillion dollars in the past four years under Obama. One trillion of it coming from the senseless war in Iraq. (Again, thanks republicans, even though, you weren’t totally to blame for that. Hilary Clinton also believed your lies and fake intel that Saddam was back in the business of producing and storing chemical weapons.

How is that for a kick in the ass?

I watch MSNBC and the democrats hating on republicans. I turn to Fox and watch republicans hating on democrats and then it hits me, this is our leadership. These are the ones who teach us all how to hate one another. These are the ones who teach us how to bully one another. These are the people who teach us that it is okay to point the finger of blame rather than stepping up and accepting responsibility or try and find solutions to our problems. These are the people who are teaching us how to spin every little thing, including the out-right truth, and make it look like something else entirely. These are the people who are dividing this country.

People like Rumsfeld who tweets about the ten year anniversary of “freeing the Iraqi people” makes me sick. It makes me sick because even to this day, he and the republicans continue to fail when it comes to the truth and accepting responsibility for the truth and the many lies they told the American people. The truth is; it was never about freeing the Iraqi people from Saddam. Oh, how I wish it were though. I would have accepted that. But that isn’t truth. And Rumsfeld knows this. The republicans know this. The Iraqi people know this. But do Americans know this? Or are we still enjoying the smells of our anus?

Yes, America, these are our true leaders of our country. And they all suck. They are all liars and corrupt politicians who have spent their entire political careers learning how to be corrupt and lie and swindle the American people. Not to mention, insult our intelligence.

No wonder America is screwed up.

So I ask yet again, what happened to paradise? Why did it have to end? What happened to our leaders? Where is our leadership? Why do our politicians continue to insult our intelligence? And make things worse? From both sides; democrats or republicans, we have no leadership, period!  

Detroit is just the beginning. But America, you have your choice. Remove head from sphincter or continue tasting the turkey from our last Thanksgiving dinner of the Clinton administration. We need a better class of elected officials. We deserve a better class of elected officials. But if we continue to elect idiots like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Obama, then we deserve every ounce of poverty and socialism we get from them. After all, if we continue to elect them, and people like them, and tolerate them, then we must want to become a communist society or, a little sister to our big brother, China.

And now we have Obama and the democrats blaming everything on the sequester. Really? Some Marines get killed in a training exercise and what do we do, blame the sequester? This is our solution? Cancel Whitehouse tours and the Easter egg hunt because of the sequester yet, we send billions of dollars to countries that wish us all dead? Really Obama? Really democrats? This is how you “lead”?

Insert shocked face here ( _______________)

Has anybody even noticed that the states and cities that have the worst problems financially or highest crime rates are primarily “Democratically” run? Places like NYC, Chicago, Detroit and California have all gone to hell in a hand-basket while Republican states like Texas seem to have their shit together…. Well, except for the executing mentally retarded people and intolerance to gay and lesbians by depriving them of their rights for them to get married like the majority of the rest of the country.

Land of the free? I think not. We always seem to be living on the edge of Eden. Right on the cusp of perfection and yet, we seem too stupid to get over the top. This is what happens when you have “career” politicians. They are always more concerned for their “job” on the short-term to get re-elected rather than the long term needs of the people they are elected to serve. This is why nothing can get accomplished in Washington. And why nothing ever will for as long as the American people allow this nonsense to continue. And trust me, if the “extremists” of both parties (Tea Party and Progressives) have their say then this nonsense will continue until “Olympus Has Fallen.” And we will fall. History proves it to be inevitable.   

  

However, that being said: If the democrats can’t fix it, and the republicans can’t fix it … Then who do we have left to turn to?

Democrats versus Republicans – We all lose!


I'm Carroll Bryant ... and this is The looking Glass.


Things we learned today:

* Politicians are the puppet masters and Americans are the puppets. I don't know if that's how it was meant to be in the beginning, but that is the way it is now. Or worse yet, special interest groups are the puppet masters and the politicians are the puppets and the American people are the audience with no say anymore. Just sit quiet and watch as your life goes to hell. And your country. 

Yeah, that's what we learned.