Saturday, May 31, 2014

Focus shifts to mental health as opposed to gun control

Congress has decided to focus on mental health issues to curb gun violence instead of gun control because it's not being fought by folks like the NRA.

I'd say that is what they should focus on because that IS the problem. Stop trying to blame your change of focus on the NRA.

Can you honestly tell me that you think any of these folks committing mass murders are in their right mind? Maybe if we were using the resources we have to their fullest the criminals wouldn't be able to get guns through legal channels.

Granted, that won't stop them from getting them illegally if they really want one but it might make it a little more difficult.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Freedom of expression doesn't mean freedom from consequence

Self expression...we all want it but not everyone has the common sense or decency to know when to put that aside to adhere to the rules and laws in place to make us a civilized society. In our example today we are going to talk about dress codes...in public schools. We all had them growing up. They changed with the times to allow or prohibit certain things as fashions changed.

One thing that didn't change was the fact that you were expected to adhere to the dress code when you went to school and your parents made sure of that.
 
It's not a difficult concept. Dress codes are in place to avoid distractions to the learning process because we all konw there are enough things in school to divert your attention from why you are really there.
 
In this story, several yearbook pictures were photoshopped to cover up some additional skin or to correct dress code violations. Parents, student and even rape prevention advocates are in an uproar because of it. Are you kidding me?
 
The problem I see today is that kids will push that envelope as far as they possible can on the grounds of "freedom of expression" and a large portion of parents encourage this. I will never understand why an adult would give their blessing for a child to knowingly break a rule/law just to express themselves. If you want to express yourself...do it on your own time.
 
In school, as in life/work, you will be expected to follow certain rules and if you don't, you will be terminated (one way or another). School is where you are supposed to start learning the skills of interacting with others, following instructions/rules and working toward a goal.
 
If we continually allow our children to break those rules we are going to end up with a world full of self-centered, entitled brats that think only of themselves.
 
OH WAIT! TOO LATE!
 
 
Lord knows they have enough of these horrible examples in the world of pop culture to learn from. How about if we, as parents, teach them that they cannot do whatever they want or they will face consequences. You may be free to express yourself but you are not free from the consequences of your actions.
 
 


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

You get a raise! You get a raise! Everybody gets a raise!

In yet another idiotic move to prevent people from feeling "discriminated against" we blindly assign "GREAT JOB" stickers to all our employees and keep them all on the same playing field.

Welcome to real life, folks...we aren't all equal and we aren't all worth the same amount of money, praise or respect either. You have to earn what you have in this world and while there will always be someone that's better than you, there will always be someone worse.

Lumping all employees into one performance classification is not only unfair but it's insulting to those that go above and beyond to perform for your company. Even good employees can have off moments which could result in poor reviews/scores on occasion. It's a fact of life that we all have to deal with. Trying to make all your employees feel like winners all the time will only succeed in pleasing your lowest performers and driving off your best performance...the ones that you should want to keep!

As an example:

Company A awards bonuses to employees based on their personal goals and achievements as well as giving management the discretion to give random pay outs for those that have gone above and beyond. Employees have clear goals and know what they must do to be an asset to the team. They happily stay with the same company for many years because they feel valued and rewarded when they work well.

Company B gives flat bonuses across the board twice a year that are based on tenure and company performance. Hard workers get no more than their peers that merely show up and do the basics to get buy. Taking on additional tasks is not rewarded because management is not given any freedom with recognizing outstanding performance. Annual review time results in all employees being promoted to a "Level II" status, no matter what their overall performance review. In most cases, the employees received no more than "meets expectations" in each category.

What I'm saying is that you should NEVER promote someone who gets nothing more than meets expectations on their annual review. Likewise, management should have the ability to recognize employees throughout the year that go above and beyond the norm. On the flip side, employees that do not meet expectations should get NOTHING. Promoting them with the rest of your high performers does nothing but bring moral down and push your good workers to look for positions elsewhere!

Paper vs Bullets...who wins?

The answer? NOBODY WINS but the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence thinks shootings could be prevented by putting a "Gun Violence Restraining Order" in place.

There are already multiple restraining orders in place that do nothing. What good is that piece of paper when that person approaches you and you are alone, unarmed and unable to protect yourself? All that piece of paper does is make the person it is drawn against even more angry and possibly more determined to harm you.

Unless you have a police escort 24/7 a restraining order is no protection against these lunatics that are out to harm you...no matter what their method.

NRA to blame for death by vehicles & knives now?

First, let me remind you that the victims of this horrific crime spree were not all killed by gun shots. 3 were stabbed to death, 3 were shot and 13 more were injured in other ways, 4 by being run over by the criminals BMW. That means, 19 people were hurt or killed...only 3 with a firearm, yet the headline of this article says "Calif. student goes on shooting rampage". Even if you only count the fatalities...the percentage of deaths by knife and gun are the same! Why was this turned into an anti-gun rant? Talk about a biased reporter and publication. How is that a fair headline when the majority of the damages were not even carried out with a gun?

Now, on to the story at hand. The father of one of the victims is understandably upset but his misdirected grief & blame are way off base in the article posted by the Washington Post. Not surprisingly, these articles always fail to point out that this happened in California, where stricter gun laws are already in place. We can all see how well those worked.

This father says he doesn't blame the parents of the gunman, or the police, or the mental health system. He blames the NRA and has no qualms saying so. Apparently his experience as a criminal defense attorney has blinded him to the true ways of the criminal mind. On that note, I wonder how many similarly charged criminals he's represented in his career!

'Martinez reserved his anger for the NRA, saying he has no understanding for the group’s position on automatic and semiautomatic weapons after a series of mass murders involving such weapons.

“I’m angry with the leadership of the NRA who always want to characterize this as if it’s a lone madman. That it’s an act of nature we have to tolerate,” he said. “I am angered by how they have worked to normalize this.”'

Nobody accepts these lunatics and their shooting sprees as normal and if they do, they are clearly the folks that we need to start looking more closely at...as they probably shouldn't have access to guns either.

Yes, there are some extreme members of the NRA that feel all gun laws are too harsh but they do not speak for the majority of us. There are equally extreme characters on the anti-gun side as well and I've seen many hateful, almost threatening, posts from many of them. Don't try to act like the NRA members are the bad guys here!

Most NRA members will tell you that we need better methods of keeping guns out of the hands of those that could be dangerous; however, you won't stop criminals from getting guns by also stopping legitimate citizens from buying them! I don't know why this is such a difficult concept to grasp for these extremists on the anti-gun team!



Monday, May 26, 2014

Stop the extremists!

In the debate over gun control there are far too many irrational extremists on both sides. The "gun grabbers" want to block all gun sales and stop people from buying & owning any gun for any reason. The pro-gun folks think you should be able to open carry any firearm, anywhere, any time.

Luckily, the majority of folks involved in this debate are somewhere in the middle...at least I hope that's the case. Unfortunately, those of us with rational arguments regarding the problem of gun violence are frequently pushed aside for the extremists and their psychotic ramblings that offer no solutions and reflect their lack of common sense.

Here are the most important points (at least in my opinion)

1. Tighter gun laws will NOT stop criminals from getting guns. They don't follow the current laws, why would they follow new ones?

2. In the absence of guns, criminals will find other weapons that are equally lethal and legal to obtain

3. If you restrict guns sales to legit owners, then only criminals will have guns and more people will be unable to defend themselves and more will die.

4. Better background checks would be beneficial as long as we can be assured that the government isn't going to try something stupid down the road and want to confiscate guns because they can't control things.

As I've always said... It's not a gun problem. It's a people problem.

We have to deal with the problem of mentally ill people in this country. Far too many people can't get help and those are the folks we should be watching for. They need help and we need better programs to identify these folks and get them the help they need.

Another issue is the sense of entitlement that many of the younger generation have. We've spent so much time telling them that they are all winners that they don't know how to deal with disappointment and failure when they get into the real world.

We have to stop worrying about our kids being upset because they don't win at everything. They need to experience competition, failure & let downs so they are prepared for life.

Life sucks, it's not fair and everyone can't always be the best. That is no reason to go postal and start killing people. You can't always get what you want and you need to learn to respect other people and their things.

Celebrity parenting advice? Get over it!

At first, this headline outraged me. But as I read the story, and thought back on the comments made by Gwyneth Paltrow, I started to think about the difference in parenting styles across the world.

Just because it works for me, doesn't mean it'll work for you. Why do we become so outraged when another parent expresses their feelings on raising children? Are you being forced to follow their lead? Noone is making you do anything that you don't want so why do people get so upset about celebrity parenting ideas?

They have more money so they have more options. Some would say their finances make their views of parenting skewed and outside the realm of reality, and that  may be true. But whose reality are we comparing it to?

People say things that you won't agree with. Sometimes they say things they might not even agree with down the road. People evolve...Don't take their opinions personally!

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Cheap food is making us fat?

I wonder how much time and money was wasted to come up with this little nugget of wisdom. I think many people have been saying this for years. It's not a new concept.

When faced with the option of buying lean cuts of meat versus fatty rolls of ground beef, what are you going to choose when you're on a tight budget?

I hear people saying that eating healthy is no more expensive than eating "crappy" but that's simply not true. At least not where I live.

I can't afford to buy fresh fruits & veggies because they are so expensive. They are more of a "treat" when I have extra money than a weekly staple of my shopping list.

Frozen meals can be as cheap as $1 each (or less) but to make meals fresh and freeze them is more expensive, not to mention time consuming. For a single parent who works 2 jobs just to pay the other bills, I can't afford the luxury of fresh fruits & lean meats.

What really irks me is those folks that are on assistance that eat better than I do. I know (hope) that they are in the minority but I saw so many when I worked as a Cashier at a grocery store that I'm a bit jaded.

If the price of fattening foods was more than healthier options, I can guarantee I'd be eating better & probably lose this extra weight.

Did you get your "fat letter"?

I am so sick of hearing about these schools sending home letters from the health department telling parents their kids are overweight.

Clearly they have no concept of how this can effect children. Most of whom already know if they are actually overweight. Do they think that those of us that are "fat" don't already know it? I'm sure the peers of these kids have made it clear to them that they are "different" but if they haven't, and they are still treated as equals, these letters could be responsible for putting the fear of being "fat" into these kids heads and cause future problems with self-esteem and eating disorders.

Unless the child is morbidly obese and clearly neglected by the parents, the school needs to stay out of it and mind their own business. Their job is to educate...stick to it!

Friday, May 23, 2014

Stop this "Everyone Is A Winner" Crap!

Michigan school sends note home that field day will not be a competition.

Ok, I'm going to say this and I'm sure many will disagree but I'm sick and tired of this "everyone is a winner" mentality!

NOT YOU ARE NOT!

There are many people that are going to suck at a lot of things and you're just going to have to learn to deal with it. You can't win everything, you can't always get your way, and we are not going to celebrate because you did something you were supposed to do anyway!

This goes right along with my dislike of commencement ceremonies for things other than high school and college graduations. You do not need to put on a cap and gown every time you move to a new school. It's ridiculous! I'm ok for recognizing those that excel but I'm sick of everyone being treated as if they were the best thing since sliced bread!

Many of you are not good at things and you need to learn that now so you know how to deal with failure in the future. Life is not a fair or fun place...stop treating kids like they can do whatever they want and be considered a winner!

Ok, sorry...but I'm sick of this mentality and feel it really has caused this horrible sense of entitlement that so many "young folks" have these days!