ROMNEYCARE!

"Supreme Court upholds Romneycare!" ~ Stephen Colbert

Would that make republicans happy? Let's face it: The thing the GOP hates about Obamacare is that it has Obama in it. No secret that it's based on the healthcare deal Mitt Romney instituted in Massachusetts when he was governor there. Obama adapted it and made his own changes to it. What were those changes? I don't know. I'm just a damn Ferrerman not some kind of healthcare expert. The Affordable Care Act was a thousand or so pages and I know this because GOP whiners whine that it was too much to read, and it was forced down their throats without anyone knowning what was in it. It was as if Johnny Holmes wrote "War And Peace" and then tried to make them read it. Yikes.

Presidents since progressive republican, Teddy Roosevelt, have been trying to pass some version of national healthcare. Until Barack Obama, none had been successful. He not only got it passed- oral rape aside- he got it to stand up to the scrutiny of a conservative Supreme Court. Not bad for a guy whom, even before he got elected was being flagged by republicans as, "THE WORST PRESIDENT SINCE JIMMY CARTER!!!!" And, he killed Bin Laden.

Since it's essentially Mitt Romney's plan and since Romney is essentially a republican, it's pretty clear that republicans only hate it because Obama got it done. They can make noise about 'death panels' and 'socialist fascism' and all but, if there guy had done it, it would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Don't change a word except for "Obama" and it's fucking golden, to borrow a phrase.

You know, even democrats would like it. Bush could have done it and democrats would have applauded it. He'd still be the asshole who invaded the wrong country for the wrong reason after 9/11 but, his legacy would have included affordable healthcare for all. Woulda been a nice thing, George.

It had to be done. It was about time that THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! joined Europe, Canada, Mexico, et al, in the 20th century.

Mitt Romney says he's going to repeal Obamacare. He's been saying he would do this on his first day in office but, if we've learned anything from 'Fast & Furious' (not the movie) it's that Executive Orders don't cover repealing Congressional actions with ten working digits and a pen. No oral rape after all! As of yesterday, he amended the promise to beginning the process to repeal... on his first day... The guy is learning. He now seems to acknowledge that he's got to go about killing it the way Obama went about birthing it and that it will take some time. Still, the House is promising to vote on it's repeal this July 11th. Well, OK. Then that goes to the senate and gets DNR'd there so, why bother?

I think the majority of Americans like Obamacare, even some who don't like Obama. This is supposed to matter. The House and Senate are supposed to represent their constituents. They are supposed to be like Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders and actually talk to people they represent and find out  what they want. Bernie does it right. All the others tell people what 'they' want. They do it...righter...I guess.

The republicans are trying to win an election here so, EVERYTHING Obama does has to be WRONG! Even killing Osama Bin Laden was "wrong" but, admittedly, they had a hard time selling that one. The only thing 'wrong' about it was their guy didn't do it. Same with healthcare.

On Topix I read some of the stupidest, most vile people to ever call themselves republican. These people quite obviously parrot conservative sites like Fox and Breitbart and a thousand others and, gave up critical thinking long ago. Seriously, unless you are of the Bin Laden family or in Al Queda, do you really have a problem with Obama having killed the guy? Sheesh- if Obama came out in favor of breathing, how many would hold their breath?

It's sour grapes that ferments the republican whine.

Romney is stuck running against his own plan. The public be damned- vote him in and he'll kill it. But, don't worry! He'll come up with his own plan! He's done this before, ya know...

I'll bet it's based on Romneycare...

Hopefully, we'll never know.

We'll always have Paris

I think I'd vote for Mitt Romney if only he were honest. If he came right out and said:

"Lookie here- if you vote for me, all this shit stops. We'll quit trying to ruin the economy to get one of us, well, ME elected and we'll just cut to the chase of making Amercia...the oligarchy it HAS to be. I'm just gonna be in charge for one day, long enough to sign everything they put in front of me and then I'm off to the horse sport thing I do. You know we're all about keeping this stuff simple and we know you folks are tired of Fox's whining and our obstructing Obama and I promise you there will be no future obstructing because that's one of the things i'll sign off on, my day in office. No more democrats! No more liberals! NOTHING...to obstruct if there are no obstructionists looking to get even with us for obstructing. You know you want it. No more arguing about unions and wages and those stupid teachers...well, I'm just getting ahead of myself here... The point is, you want it to stop. You know you do. All you have to do is vote for us- and by "us", I, of course mean, "ME" and we'll take care of everything!"

Of course, I'm not in favor of Mitt and the republicans and oligarchy rule in this country but, perhaps like famous rape victim and basketball coach, Bobby Knight, said: "If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it."

This could be the republican party platform if only they were honest.

Politicians are never honest though. Hitler didn't gain power by popular vote and by detailing how he would rid the world of millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other folks he did not like. Nor did he speak of world domination via perpetual war. The reason he didn't do this was because, people would not have gone along with such a plan. You have to ease people into things like that. You have to make it *necessary*. This means planting seeds of doubt and carefully watering them for a time until one day you set fire to the Reichstag, blame it on "the communists", go from being Chancellor to THE Furher and then you begin your World Tour...

Is Mitt going to do this? No. Not him personally.  I'm pretty good at sizing people up and, his millions aside, this guy is not that smart. He's simply the most electable of the other choices the GOP trotted out in the past year. Really, if you had to pick one of the GOP potentials to be the guy who, once elected, would start throwing undesirables into work camps it would have been Rick Santorum. You wouldn't have picked the others for anything and not enough people did so, it was gonna be Romney all along. Santorum was too weird. The Pizza Guy was comic relief and *proof* that republicans are NOT racist. Nein, nein, NEIN! Newt is Newt. He won't change that. Who am I forgetting? There were like 50 of them... Perry. Rick Perry is about as pretty as Romney but, he's damn near senile. How could they tell a guy what to do if  he couldn't articulate what they were saying?

That's why Romney is acceptable. If you were casting the role of president, he'd be a great choice.

But, his presidential looks and ten working digits are about all he brings to the White House. Well, as it turns out, that's all he needs. Everyone in the GOP just has to never mind that he's a Mormon. That's what gets me. All this God talk the GOP has been doing for years about "Christian values" and, in a nation of 300+ million people, the best they can come up with is a guy from a cult-like religion founded in the 19th century? Is there not a level of Scientology he could buy into and still have some change left over? Sheesh- where might the Reverend Jim Jones be today if not for his penchant for mass murder/suicide?

On the one hand, it's nice that no one is really making a big deal about Mitt's Mormonism. On the other, it's fucking bizzare. I really have heard scant little talk of the notion that we might have a president taking orders from Salt Lake City. JFK was the first Catholic president and the talk of the day was that he'd get marching orders from The Vatican. That, of course, did not happen. Have we matured this much as a nation since then?

No. BTW, that wasn't a serious question. We are nowhere near being seriously enlightened as a nation about anything. We never will be. We are the most easily led motherfuckers history has ever known. Once the envy of the world, the role model for absolutely everyone from the third world to communist nations, we are the laughingstock now. We are Lindsay Lohan. Once we were young, pretty and kinda perkily slutty and kinda good at what we do. Now we are a punchline. We're always driving into things and we've put on weight. We're still fuckable but, it's only because of what we used to be. Not because of our potential. This republic of ours never really took off. We had a nice run. Then, the script got flipped.

 "Casablanca" with Humphrey Bogart, is one of the best films ever made. Despite the script being sorta made up on the fly, it was a helluva good story. Did you know that Ronald Reagan was supposed to have played Rick Blaine instead of Bogie? Yep. A truly great film was thisclose to being "Bedtime For Bonzo Goes To North Africa". Ronald Reagan's greatest role turned out to be playing "The President" in a real life casa blanca. Who saw that coming?

Life. It's all in the casting. Who knew?

Another person who got short with me...

...was Little Bit. Lil' Bit for short. She claimed to be 5'2" but just about everything she has ever said was a lie so, maybe 5 foot? Every inch counts at that level so, fudging a little bit... happens a lot.

She worked under me (waaaay under me) at a different company in Memphis. This was another job I absolutely killed. I came on the job with it already in the hole from the framing, hanging and drywall finishing. I remember walking the job with the boss and being told I would be doing the work with only Lil' Bit and Marcus. Oh- and he wanted me to fire both of them, by the way.

Well, OK... Who would I get to replace them?

No one. The church job was a disaster and all useless hands were on deck there. No one was available. I wasn't actually going to be firing anyone, now was I? I liked Marcus. A 6'5'' ex-Marine, self-proclaimed "ghetto fabulous", black man who could really bring it on a job and was a pretty good painter. He had some issues though. The last job he and I had kicked ass on, he disappeared the next day, winding up in jail in Kentucky. He had gotten a little too mouthy with a cop and this caused the cop to dig a little deeper into the warrant book and discovered that Kentucky requested his company. I never knew what the charge was. I've got a don't ask if you're not going to tell policy about that stuff. Being locked up for two months cost him a lot of money. He was one very angry, in debt black man. I liked him though and frankly, there was no good reason to fire him beyond the boss and others being rednecks who were terrified of him wanting him gone so, I wasn't gonna be any body's hatchet man regardless.

Lil' Bit could have been a different story and perhaps should have been. She was a lesbian which should neither be here nor there but, being a lesbian was pretty important to her and is an integral part of this story. I called our crew "The Mod Squad" after the TV show as well as "Two And A Half Men". She enjoyed being mistaken for a man and often was. We'd walk the job and someone would say, "Good morning, fellas." And they weren't being funny. Hair short and swept back, breasts tied down, no make-up and a masculine walk- she was almost what she tried to portray herself to be. She told me that some in her community even stuffed their pants when they were on the prowl. Just like real men!

She wasn't a bad painter herself but she was nowhere near as good as she professed. Just as no man who brags is as good as he claims (except Michael Jordan) no man impersonators are either. I knew she was going to be trouble. She had more time in the company than me but, I had been hired to run work. She had not. Tested in the past, she had failed.

I took her under my wing in that Godfather-like admonishment that advises to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I should mention that this never works! They are enemies for a reason. Being nice just makes them mean. Now I tell me....

Anyway, I got to know her. Not better mind you but, I got to know her as she portrayed herself. She was as phony as the dildo she kept under her bed. Her story about being a "mother of two" turned out to be her (very pretty) girlfriend getting pregnant when she wasn't being a lesbian and the second child was her brother's kid. Brother was in jail, baby mama was a crackhead. So, actually, she was an aunt and a sort of step-father. The baby, she told me, was born with some weird birth defect that caused her to periodically have her head opened up to allow for brain development. I am NOT making this up. Lil' Bit was though. She had already shown me photos of the little darling with absolutely NO surgical scars. Yep, she was a lil' bit of a pathological liar...

That's one thing on the internet, quite another IRL where stories can be checked quite easily. She had also told me that she was a former gang-banger and had shot (but not killed a guy) in a gang fight. I wasn't buying this either but I did check with my cop neighbor who worked the part of town where she claimed the incident happened to see if anything resembling that had happened at all. You see, her story hadn't ended with jail time as those stories usually do.

She was a little, pretend man who, like a lot of little, actual men do, tried to present herself as ten feet tall and bullet proof. If I spent time calling her or anyone else out on their lies, nothing would ever get done. When I'm sitting three feet away from her and I clearly hear she's arguing with a woman on the phone and she hangs up and tells me she was fighting with her ex-husband, I don't need to call her a liar and tell her that her *husband* talks like a girl. I just say, Well, love's a bitch...

Her worst two lies though really pissed me off. Recall that I killed this job. My boss and his boss told me so. They don't generally admit these things. Part of Management 101 is NEVER telling your people they are doing ANYTHING but costing you MONEY!!!! The idea is to keep them from asking for more money. How can you ask for more money when you are fucking everything up?! Please read a newspaper or watch Fox news for further explanation of this. It's exactly why corporations need Scott Walkers and Mitt Romney's keeping labor at bay.

My boss told me later that Lil' Bit was often calling him up and telling him he needed to get out to the job because that Ferrerman guy was fucking the whole thing up!

Interesting. He'd come out to the job, sometimes at her request, and every time find that I had the situation well in hand. I did. Billy, the General on the job, loved me. He was the toughest and best GC Superintendent in town. If he had a problem with me, he'd run me off himself or make a phone call. I think my boss was invoking his own don't ask/don't tell to keep things on an even keel on the job. I would have handled a heads up about her bullshit but, how could he be sure?

Incredibly, it also turned out she was telling other trades on the job that she was the foreman. Any job is like a little community. On a regular basis, I had to coordinate with every trades foreman to negotiate when he could have a space or when I could get into one. I was the go to guy. This was pretty clear. I don't know how she pulled this off or if she really did. Most other foreman were probably like my paint counterpart who ran a crew for the company who was doing the core (bathrooms, stairwells, etc) of the building. He said: "Ferrer, I just listened to her and came and got with you. I didn't want any trouble."

This reminds me of Sambilly, my Topix stalker. If they are indeed two separate people, Sam and Billy spend a ton of time on Topix acting as if they are the Who's Who Directory of Topix. This is a nice way of saying these two are bitches who troll people under various names and then *definitively* state that "Ferrerman did it..." Really. They say the definition of insanity is being so fucking crazy that you tell FERRERMAN that he is someone else. I'll add to that that it's insane to believe that shit too. Stupid is as stupid does.

But, I digress. For all the foolishness, I enjoyed the job. Every trade was under the gun to finish two months early. I had no problem keeping up. AND the powers that be knew who had made it happen.

I understand that Lil' Bit was a pathological liar. There were dozens of stories that didn't add up and, like most liars, she couldn't keep her own stories straight. I felt sorry for her. I have to admit that, were she a real guy, I would have fired her at first opportunity. Most guys defer to women, even women who aren't quite womanly at all. A lot of the guys in the company wanted to fuck her. That's hard to fathom even knowing men like I do and knowing that many of my brethren will fuck anything that has a pulse. I'm totally fine with gays and lesbians. I just couldn't see a guy being attracted to her. She just looked like a little boy. She would act girly at times and use feminine wiles even. It was fascinating though to watch her work one day when some girls from a work-release program came on the job to clean up part of the lease space. Two, at least, were very attracted to her. She strutted and profiled just like a dude would. She was very predatory. Had these gals not had to go back to jail, Lil' Bit would have had herself some strange that night, after work. Strange world. You just never know how strange.

I'll always wonder what she was really like as a person. I wonder if she knows? Sadly, she'll never know who she is, just who she wants people to think she is.

Casting Call!

I was watching the "AMC CELEBRATORY 1 MILLIONTH SHOWING OF 'HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER'" yesterday and wondered whatever became of the midget who played Mordecai, the character that Clint made sheriff of Lago. I often cast movies about my life in my head and I thought the diminutive actor would be an excellent choice to play "Little Jimmy" if I ever got around to making a movie about my former career at Ratmo Construction LLC.

Well, I've got IMBD on speed-dial here and I learned that the actor, Billy Curtis, died in 1988, at the age of 79. So, he won't be available. This is too bad because my other choice, Leon Rippy (who played John Billings in "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson) is too tall though he is the spittin' image of Little Jimmy. He even has the cackling giggle that Little Jimmy has. Casting is tough. I may never get to the actual filming at this rate.

I may have mentioned Little Jimmy was a rat bastard. He had his moments and was really quite entertaining when he wanted to be. His older brother had been in a band in the very early sixties and Jimmy himself had some keyboard talent. Evidently he had toured with George Jones doing something, at some point in his life.

Once, the paint crew had done something slightly bad and no one was willing to fess up. I was pretty new to the crew and so Jimmy decided to try and make me an outcast by asking me to snitch in front of the guys.

"I'll ask Ferrerman. Ferrerman won't lie to me!"

Oh, I don't want to have to start now, I replied.

That was the end of that Inquisition.

Little Jimmy once had me and Dell Winston paint the wrong building. Twice! I never got to the bottom of this one as there was a huge cover up but, a few days after we completed the job, Dell and I were separately driving past and saw an other company painting the building. I so wanted to stop and find out what was going on but, I had more important things to do that day. It wouldn't have been the first time someone jumped the gun and began a job that had been bid on but not quite finalized. Little Jimmy was a poor leader. More often than not, you'd roll up on a job for the walk through, inquire about how much time you had to do it and Jimmy would reply that it 'needed to be done last week...' Now, part of that is Poor Management 101, where you always push your employees unnecessarily so they never, ever get complacent and always, always hurry. But, with Little Jimmy, I think it was that plus having a memory as short as he was.

I could see him waddling into the office, jumping up on a chair,  after being called on the carpet and declaring that Ferrerman and Winston were rouge painters, going about town, painting whatever they goddamned felt like! Honestly, at Ratmo, that might well have sufficed. Someone always had to be blamed and punished. I could tell you stories...

More likely though, since Jimmy had control over our time sheets, the building in question never officially existed. Our time was likely paid for on another job, one we had never visited. It was typical to charge the customer for labor that wasn't performed to make jobs that were 'in the hole' look less holey. Ratmo was the Bandini and Lambert of construction. There were many jobs I 'worked' on that I never saw.

Though Little Jimmy did indeed have a personal grudge against me, he also had a grudge against the world. Many guys who are five foot nothing do. To be Ferrer to me, I didn't start with the short jokes and other abuse until I realized I had nothing to lose nor gain with this little motherfucker. With some exceptions, I don't start with people. They start with me. Often, they regret it.

I just hate being sand-bagged. That was Little Jimmy's favorite technique. As I mentioned, Ratmo wanted only to place blame. Back then, at least, they had no official status as "foreman" on a job as most big-time construction outfits do. At Ratmo you were more of a designated whipping boy for whatever went wrong. You didn't get more money for this. There was a sort of a carrot on a stick that it mightcould lead to fortune and fame but, don't count on it. Being good- damn good- at your job is trumped by being lazy AND a fuckin' rat. I promise you this is true. It's not peculiar to construction alone but, some people are so useless, they have got to be in charge. See GW Bush.

Anyway, I did a 400,000 square foot food storage warehouse for them and I fucking killed the job. The client was thrilled. The GC was thrilled. Everyone was happy but Little Jimmy. About six months later I found out that "I" had gone $2 grand over budget on labor and the same on materials. The latter is nothing considering changes and the fact that a guy who never lifted a brush in his life is estimating the job. Plus, there's Ratmo's accounting techniques... But, labor? I had ZERO control over that. I reminded Little Jimmy that HE had been the one calling me every day to TELL ME that various deadbeats would be showing up to my job to eat up the clock. I neither wanted them nor needed them. Little Jimmy would not budge. I was seriously mad and thisclose to setting him on a five gallon bucket and fighting him, as I had threatened to do a few hundred times. Four or five good men can out-perform a dozen any day. If you load up a job, the lazy one's see that the good one's are doing the work and they wander off and hide. It's sub-human nature to do this and was ALWAYS the case at Ratmo. I brought Little Jimmy's assertion up to his boss, Hugh Djork, who was the VP's idiot brother and, thus, the Supervisor.

Hugh informed me that he had been studying that for six months... He hadn't quite figured it out yet though...

Sheesh, I hate stupid people. Joe Sausage, the owner of Ratmo is a millionaire. If he didn't love stupid people so much, he'd be a multi-millionaire. He once retired from day to day operation of the company only to return the next year when business dropped $200,000. He was livid. I'm sure someone explained to him that the painters left 10 minutes early one day and, well, there ya go.... I'm also sure he accepted that but figured there might be a bit more to it, just the same. Joe Sausage thinks he resembles the actor, Harrison Ford. I don't think I'll be calling Ford's agent anytime soon though. He'd probably send the film over budget  and just phone the job in anyway.  

Let's dance!

I've never romanced a woman over the internet. I don't mean the wham-bam-spank-you-m'am of porn sites. I mean, rather, the literary seduction aspect of romance. Maybe I should?

Well, no, I probably shall not. There's a lot of caveat emptor to be considered on the internet. A Ferrerman must be cautious.

I recently wrote about a woman (a woman as far as I could tell...) who wanted to jump right in to cyber sex with me with absolutely no provocation from me. Yikes. We now know that wasn't going to happen. I have several wonderful women friends, all who have come to me via the internet, none of which I cyber-sex with. Whether they are married or in a relationship of other sorts, they all interested in Ferrerman's huge sex organ, just the same.

Of course, by huge sex organ I mean, my brain. Oh boy- I've got a big one!

But, that's not really exactly what the attraction is. It is the brain but the spanking stuff is just them doing their friendly duty, of sorts. They are very tolerant and understanding of my spanktuality and it doesn't get in the way of our friendships because that's not what we're all about. I don't cyber sex with any of these women. I don't think any of them question why I talk trash with other women on the threads but not them in real life. We're grown ups. Men and women can be friends without "Tab A" having to fit in "Slot V". I have known for years that many women are actual human beings. I very much like that these woman wisely see that, at least Ferrerman, is also a human being.

I've really only been wrong once. That happened this year. There was a gal in the threads who, though a rather delicate lily of a poster, could also be quite a tiger! I admired her posting and her liberal mind. We did quite a bit of personal messaging earlier this year. It was rather in-depth and frequent.

I don't go through life with blinders on though. I wouldn't be Ferrerman if I did. I knew full well she was in a relationship. Kinda odd though that it was 15, maybe 20 PM's into our messaging that she mentioned the guy at all. That's the sort of news you put out there right away if you're not looking for romance. It's best to cut to the chase/head 'em off at the pass. If I had been the sort of Ferrerman to be seducing this gal, I'd also be the sort of Ferrerman to quit while I was already behind. I liked her. I just didn't like her like that. I didn't see any reason to like her like that. Honestly, I don't recall her really giving me any reason. Her having a cyber boyfriend was a rather large omission, I thought.

We messaged heavy (but not hot) for a couple of months. A few months ago, this came to a halt. People get busy, I guessed, though I kinda wondered if I hadn't been played.

One of the creepiest posters on Topix had just renewed his feud with me and I knew that this gal was friendly with the shoe-shopping freak. I had actually thought only a couple of weeks had passed since I had last heard from her but, it turned out to be a month. I wrote her. She wrote back, letting me have it with both barrels. Yikes.

She didn't at all like how I treated her shoe-shopping-freak friend! Well, that had never come up before! Yikes again. I had actually laid off the shoe-shopping-freak the past months out of some polite deference to her but mostly because the guy is a Major League fucking idiot. The guy is worse than Sam. He's so much so worse than Sam that I think he might be Sam. Now, that is some YIKES!

But, because I had held back, the timing of her dismissal of me was curious. I hadn't rattled any sabres and he hadn't tossed any high-heeled shoes. All of a sudden, Fort Ferrerman had been fired upon and secession abounded.

Had I been played? Or had she felt rejected by Ferrerman? Both?

Well, I don't know. I'll never know. The very thing that attracted me to her in the first place- her mind- was lost that day. Her liberal-minded postings went away. She disagreed with everything I posted after that. Breaking up is hard to do. It's particularly hard when you weren't even going together. Sheesh- I thought Sam was bitter! Hell hath no fury...

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. This little hiccup is just a sputter of internet nonsense. The good dancers remain on the floor. The wallflowers go shoe-shopping.  The band plays on. I'm a good dancer because I know the rythym, no matter the song, even if I miss a beat or two. I like to dance and do so with the best partners!!

And so it goes....

I'm not going to call it brilliant but, it is simplistically smart. You do whatever it takes to win and your fans will love you for it because they will win too. Or, so it seems.

We have two major parties here and they generally trade off running the show every four to eight years. Eight good years of a Bill Clinton just has to- in the interest of fair play- give way to eight horrible years of GW Bush. No one really knew Bush was going to be so awful. In fact, given a good economy and a surplus of funds, he had a lot of wiggle room. If he fucked up a little, how bad could it be?

It's just so incredible to me that, even before he actually won in '08, republican strategerists... were plotting against Barack Obama, conspiring to do whatever it took to make him a one term president. Even less than one term if possible. If you pay even a little attention to politics you may have noticed that his first term has been unprecedented in partisan politics as practiced by republicans. They've been rather bold about it....

Though no doubt closed-door meetings have always been the norm in our political system, it was pretty incredible to hear Mitch McConnell unabashedly state that the republicans ONLY goal was to make Obama a one term president. Well, duh! I'm sure each party says that in their meetings. This old turtle-looking fuck stated it publicly. He must have some huge (by comparison) shriveled up grapes in his grape sack! In the depth of a massive recession- caused by the doings of their own president and their own personal constituents- he comes right out and declares that they will do ANYTHING to stop the new guy from trying to fix things. Incredible. No pretense of bi-partisan, hands-across-the-aisle cooperation (with the usual behind the scenes skulduggery) dog and pony show of politics. Just grape nuts out, "We're gonna stop him!"  Damn America- full speed behind!

The gloves came off pretty quick and they stayed off. It's not supposed to work this way. How could it? Especially in a place that advertises itself as "THE Greatest Country In The WORLD! EVER!!!"

Well, we suck. I mean- no one else is better but, we suck. We suck because, half of us at least, do suck and the other half puts up with this shit. Thus, we all suck.

Old school republicans (and there are a few) really suck because they let their own party fall apart before their very eyes. They let the staus quo get kicked to the curb. They gave up. So, of course, did democrats. Many of them were still trying to deal with the republicans as if it were the old days of the dog n' pony show. It's not.

These Ryans and Cantors are the new face of the republican party. These motherfuckers are serious. It's not a game when they talk of eliminating social programs, never-ever raising taxes and denouncing teachers, firefighters and cops as money-grubbing leeches upon society. They're not saying this shit to get a lucrative deal in their home turf, get a favorable bill passed- whatever. They really believe this crap. You're not supposed to equate anyone to Nazi's because that's been done to death but, these fuckers are Nazi's. The hardcore, original gangster, Nazi's really believed Jews were a scourge upon the earth and needed to be exterminated. They really did. They attracted less dedicated but equally depraved monsters of society to their cause simply because those people wanted to kill. There were certainly people in the Nazi party who couldn't care less about the tenets and philosophies. Just point them in the direction of the victims and let them have at it.

I'm seeing the same thing today in the republican party. It's all on view in the threads. Every creep in the woodwork of this country has come out in their favor. Whether it's a jack-leg security guard in Kentucky who openly fantasizes about personally putting a round in the head of any *law breakers* to *strict constitutionalists* who believe that revolution is the duty of all citizens, the GOP has attracted ALL of the dregs of society. All are welcome. Their were Jews in the SS, for god's sake!

Is this Mitt Rmoneys agenda? Oh please! This lump of hair has wanted to be president probably since he led that assault on the alleged gay kid back in prep school. He simply looks presidential and has the Grover Norquist maximum requisite of ten working digits to sign whatever they put in front of him. While I'm convinced he truly does not care about the average American citizens, he's nothing but the patsy they need. It doesn't mean he's personally in favor of FEMA camps for liberals or making some stolen valor, Kentucky felon, Attorney General In Charge Of Shooting Folks. It just means Rmoney is very open to suggestions, something our current president is not. Kinda funny that a guy who doesn't do everything he's told is considered a "dictator". Not very funny that these people believe he should be replaced by an actual dictator.

We live in interesting times, eh?

The truth will set you free

Several years ago, the Final Jeopardy question asked- well, stated- that the above was the motto of "this organization". I think all three contestants guessed that it was The NAACP.

It is the motto of the Central Intelligence Agency! Who knew? Well, not those people...

I'm not so sure that the truth was ever accepted as an avenue to freedom in the history of this world but, it sure seems quite unimportant now, perhaps more than ever. Everything is open to debate. Indeed, someone could research my claim that there were three contestants on the show that day and perhaps discover that the accountant from Wilkesboro, Pa, had finished the Double Jeopardy round in a deficit thus not qualifying for Final Jeopardy and making Ferrerman a FUCKING LIAR!!!! This, to some, would totally blow me out of the water! And if the guy wasn't an accountant or from Pennsylvania, there you go!

Whatever, that's their motto. They probably say it a lot while water-boarding suspects, even if they don't mean it. I imagine it's always a good idea to make people think the torture will stop if they fess up. I also don't think they really care so much about the truth as they merely desire to hear confirmation of what they already believe is true. It's the same with Foxnews and most people on the internet.

That's the way truth goes these days. It's more relative to what a person or group of persons thinks than ever before. People believe crazy things, often, the crazier the better. There was a very smart guy on Colbert last night talking about "nothing" in the universe. I would have like to have been high for that segment but, I was able to sorta kinda keep up, just the same. That the universe came out of nothing is likely true and, to me, every bit as plausible as God inventing the universe. You can argue: "Who invented God?" just as well as "Who invented nothing?" Actually, nothing makes more sense. The smart man wasn't out to prove there was no God. He just felt he had proved God was not necessary to create the universe. I got that.

I try to consider why people believe something is true. People argue about whether homosexuality is genetic or learned behavior. It's clearly genetic to me. Most gay people report they always felt gay, from their earliest childhood memories. I remember an ABC report on twin boys who were about seven at the time. Same DNA but one brother was "all boy" into sports and roughhousing and the other liked dolls and dressing up as a princess. The same parents raised them in the same house, in the same way but, the boys were decidedly different. Seems pretty obviously genetic to me.

Some would deny the genetics of it all perhaps because they refuse to believe that God would purposely create gays when clearly some Bible verse says men are not supposed to lay down with men. So, there ya go. Or, maybe they experimented a bit in college and soaked another guys cork. If it's genetic, they might have to face up to their own secret desires. They liked it but, knew it was *wrong* and they just weren't ever gonna do that again! Just maybe look at it on the internet from time to time... Or, they simply might refuse to believe that they and the little woman created a child who was gay because that might suggest there was something wrong with them. So, they believe that the truth is people choose to be gay because non-Christian liberals talk people into being gay because, that's what they do....

Well, that makes sense....

There's always conflict with science and religion. You have to take religion on faith and much of science- since it's theory- is taken on a sort of faith as well. But, science at least tries very, very hard to prove stuff while religion is more "I told you so!" Because I said so, doesn't cut it with me. You might be right about something. but you need to convince me as to why. Just being the boss or The Pope doesn't get it.

People deny global warming. Why? For some it's Biblical in that (though the Bible doesn't discuss it) it's scientific theory and that is evil in itself. For others it's financial and thus, political. Global warming to some is an invention of the democrats who are really communists because they hate business because they just want to tax and spend and regulate people just for the sake of regulating people. Well, there ya go...

Never in the history of the world has there been one billion fossil-fuel burning automobiles on the road. NEVER! So, it seems to me that emissions from those vehicles and from hundreds of thousands of factories that we never had before either, just might be mucking up the air that we breathe and the climate in general. Ya think?  Mother Earth has never known the world we live in today. There are, 7 billion people in the world? More? Less? Whatever, we are beating the old record by billions. It's idiotic to disavow the cars, factories and sheer numbers NOT having a negative impact. What the fuck is there to argue if so many people can't even grasp that damage is possible in the first place?

The truth is that there are more stupid people on earth than ever. We're making more every day. Some people, many of them world leaders or Foxnews pundits, like it this way. Stupid people believe what they are told and only question what others try to tell them. Stupid people do not think. They have people who do that for them. It's stupid but, it's easier.

Stupidity isn't genetic though. It's learned behavior. It can be cured. If only we would try...

Ferrerman's Troll-fighting Tips

You are not legally allowed to kill them. The downside to Stand Your Ground laws is that they don't apply (so far) to the internet and, if they did, 99% of the ground-standing-killing would probably be done by the trolls themselves, just like IRL where the likes of George Zimmerman abuse an otherwise fairly well intentioned law.

On the threads, I do recommend standing one's ground though. Just modify your rules of engagement to the point where you simply do not engage obvious trolls unless you've got a funny that's just too good to pass up. It's the old DFTT (Do not Feed The Troll) advice but, modified to allow for some fun. Stand your ground by continuing to post but, post around the troll(s) and let them starve themselves on their obsession.

There are certainly thousands of obsessed trolls with hundreds of thousands of personas all over the internet. I really hate to think of my troll as "my troll" because it sounds so...weirdly possessive. It's something that that creepy Billy R and his equally creepy, alleged *twin sister* habitually talk about. They think it adds to their already over inflated, self-absorbed, specialness. The term itself is over used. It's come to take on the meaning with many that anyone who disagrees with you is a troll. Certainly every fucking scumbag reichtard moron considers Ferrerman a troll because of my talented, enlightened, charming, gifted, posting techniques and progressive opinions. They surely think that everywhere they follow Ferrerman, there Ferrerman is going on about non-crazy solutions to life's problems! It's either that or they really have a strong, anti-spanking of women's bottoms stance in life. Yikes. What's wrong with them???

Anyway, you can ignore/not-feed trolls all you want and they either go away or they don't. That's just the way it is. Fighting them is kind of futile. It's like beating the snot out of somebody- they're laying on the ground in a bloody pulp- and them claiming victory because you bloodied your knuckles on them.

Personally, I like that every post I make is iconned and replied to as some degree of gay/stupid, usually by the same idiot. People notice that and, whether they are Ferrerman friendly or not, it must occur to them that the stalker is one very obsessed idiot with no life beyond stalking Ferrerman. I like this just like I like *conservative* posts about rounding up liberals and putting them in concentration camps *to take OUR America back!!* Those folks, like trolls, just can't grasp that such malevolent idiocy only appeals to other malevolent idiots, people who need validation of what they were already thinking anyway. Often the threads are just a dating site for crazy people.

You might think that the trolls would pick up on this but, they don't. They just don't get it. Imagine thinking Ferrerman could be defeated!

Well, that's crazy talk....

Sun of a bitch!

The sun, is free.

What kind of a fucked up, socialist/communist plot is that?!?! We need to privatize everything if there is to be a way out of this recession. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! After gay marriage, abortion end-arounds and tax cuts for rich people, jobs are somewhat of a priority in this election, certainly in the top 300 or so items on the republican wish list for 2012. You know how there's "an app for that" on those fancy phones? If you've got a beef with anybody about anything and it's got 600 degrees of separation from reality but might be something Obama is in favor of, The GOP has an app for that. Vote for them and your wish will come true.

Barack Hussein Obama probably surely most certainly is against privatizing the sun. Most definitely he surely certainly considers this notion "stupid", "impractical" and other fascist notions that his good friends Saul Alinsky and Hitler would have agreed with. So, this is exactly why it makes perfect sense. Obama is thisclose to coming out in favor of Americans breathing oxygen, knowing full well that this will cause millions of republicans to stop breathing, in protest. This is precisely why we must elect anybody but Obama in November. He clearly wants to kill republicans.

Anyway, privatization of the sun makes sense from a business perspective. The business of America is business, after all. The sun, currently regulated by the government, shines nearly every day, almost everywhere in America. It's been reported to shine elsewhere in the world, as well. Often this sun is in 12 hour doses in 24 hour periods but, it can be less. Once you get the government and Obama involved, this is what you get. Ever notice that the sun shines less in winter? That's democrats and their "conserving" bullshit.

"OH! We'll use less sun in the winter when it's cold anyway so we can have more sun in the summer so we can go to the beach with our government checks!" they most certainly ordain. That's got Harry Reid (one of those creepy Mormons, BTW) written all over it. well, that's how they think: "Gimme-gimme! Conserve though while doing it!"

Sheesh. Do they have any idea how many jobs privatization of the sun would create?

Well, a lot. How's that grab ya? And, as business goes, this will trickle down to everyone, in the time-honored tradition of capitalism. The sun will indeed, shine on a different dogs ass every day!

Harnessing the sun won't be easy. In fact, it's impossible. Kinda stupid to even think about, actually. But, I digress. It'll still rain and that will affect prices but, that's business. Depending upon what letter of president is in office and the rain and snow thingy, prices will fluctuate. Unrest in the Middle east will still somehow always be a factor but, Exxon is already working on that. War with Iran will be necessary.  But, ExxonMobil will ensure that it rises every day and that alone will be worth it.

Stand YOUR ground, please

Recently in Texas, a father walked into a room in his house and caught a guy sexually abusing his daughter. He proceded to beat the hell out of the guy and landed a fatal blow to the head. Who wouldn't do that? Nearly every man and woman would do the same in that situation. You catch a guy in the act and incensed with the rage of seeing your child hurt, you have at him. From what I understand, the man's intent was not to kill but to punish. The police understood and agreed with his actions too and it is doubtful he will be prosecuted. I agree with that...

However, that was the initial official police reaction to the Trayvon Martin killing. Under Florida's law, George Zimmerman had a right to stand his ground and use deadly force to preserve his life. He wasn't charged with anything until public outcry called for further investigation. Then we began to get the rest of the story....

The rest of the story is what we need everytime someone takes another's life. The father in Texas most likely killed that man righteously. I'd like to see more investigation, something beyond it being covered by Castle Doctrine. Again, the deceased was caught in flagrante delicto and the father acted as any parent would in that circumstance. It wasn't vengeance after a not-guilty verdict as has happened in the past. It didn't seem to be pre-meditated either. I'm 99.9% certain he righteously killed that man as reported. I would just like to see more than a perfunctory investigation, paper-work to satisfy a vague law.

Currently, also in Texas, a man is on trial for killing one man and wounding two others. His defense is the "stand your ground" Castle Doctrine law that Texas has, as well. In this case, angry at a loud party near his home, he left his house armed with a gun and a video phone to confront the partiers. While on the phone with the police, he started shooting *in fear for his life* as he stated. Under the law, and facing a Texas jury, he may very well get off. I don't think he should. The partiers did not confront him. He confronted them. with a gun.

I understand that people are fed up with crime. I understand the intent of Stand Your Ground type laws. I just think they are being taken advantage of. It's tough enough to empower trained police officers with the taking of lives, how can we empower average (and below-average citizens...) willy-nilly with the same powers? In my eye, the Texas shooter went looking for trouble and found it. Same with George Zimmerman. In flagrante delicto partying or walking is not to be equated with caught-in-the-act child rape. If the Texas shooter stays in his castle, no one gets killed. What possible good could come of yelling at drunk people? It's a police job. Though it might not be a priority for them on a weekend night, a shooting is. It should not have gone down this way. The shooter set the stage for this when he left his home armed and angry. This has to be taken into consideration and not shined on by a broadly written law.

The likes of him and Zimmerman shouldn't *ruin it* for folks who are actual crime victims trying to save their own lives or those of others, either. People who applaud such shootings should consider that. They should consider they could be on the receiving end of such justice. How much cheering would they do then? You could be the party goer or the person walking home from the store. Would you be proud to die for extrapolated Second Amendment rights?

Not enough people think these things through. The internets are full of folks applauding the killers. It's what they would do. And each of these cases, if adjudicated *properly* will empower them to maybe one day do their own killing. "If only..." they might dream.

Sheesh. On the internet, people like the openly-idiotic "Oki" regularly fantasize about killing. There are scores of thousands like him and they constantly remind everyone they have guns and will use them. Hopefully, they never will. Also hopefully, if they ever do, things they've posted on the internet will be considered by the legal system. I'd sure hate to think some weasel could come up from Kentucky and shoot a Ferrerman for having his stereo too loud...

Oh, you Devil's!

The Season Finale was last night. Five episodes and still no house mouse but, there was lots of low testosterone drama.

Please. I like Gypsy but, if you come in with a baseball bat, into someones house, and get to smashing things, you're going to get your ass beat. THEN- not later. He was all by himself and I think there were five LD main characters. Gypsy had his helmet on which might not be a bad idea if you're fixin' to fight five guys but...he looked like that iconic photo of Michael Dukakis, helmeted and sitting atop a tank. Gee, what's Mike been up to since then?

So, yeah, the show is a bit scripted like all the other reality shows on TV. I'm not saying these guys are actors but, maybe they wanna be? Shows like "Big Brother" and "Survivor" like young, attractive people who think they might like to try their hand at acting. Porn is still kinda like too. Everyone wants to be on TV because you never know what comes next until you try. I've never seen "The Jersey Shore" but, because of it, I know who Snookie is. It means nothing to me that I know who she is but, it might one day if I'm ever on "Celebrity Jeopardy" after becoming famous, of course, for being the star of my own reality series: "FERRERMAN!" It could happen...

It's kinda weird that a show has its season finale after just five episodes but I think that's the network testing the waters and being fiscally prudent. As far as I know it's a hit. Even people who might think it's stupid or fake probably watch if, for no other reason, to mock it for being stupid or fake. The aforementioned reality shows are all derivative of themselves but, I still watch despite that and maybe because of it. And frankly, I like the bottoms. You probably knew that.

They should have beat Gypsy's ass but, that is not always good theatre or storytelling. It's all in the editing. It looks like it's gonna go down. Then it doesn't actually go down. But, it will go down...later. A few quick cuts of the tape makes you think it might. When it doesn't, your mind accepts that it will later. So you keep watching. It's like the crisis of the moment on 24 hour news channels. THIS drama is important and unfolding NOW so, keep watching!

How fake is this? Are they like lawyers or politicians that freaking tear each other apart and then go to lunch as the good friends they are? It might well be. Lawyers and politicians are doing their jobs which is putting on a show for us, the viewing public. If the script says you have to think gay marriage is ruining the country, you have to go with that. Just be happy you get to be hero AND villain. Do a good job and you might get a featured role in the ensuing episodes. Just act like you care. Don't resolve anything too quickly though. There's always got to be a money shot. And it's always got to be, later...

And rest in peace, Juice, who succumbed (off camera) to a fatal heart attack. Unless, that is, he was merely written out of the show.

Who's is driving this train wreck?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/09/did-republicans-deliberately-crash-us-economy?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fcommentisfree%2Frss+%28Comment+is+free%29

I personally don't think republicans are that clever. If Mitch McConnell is a clever man, he doesn't publicly declare early into Obama's presidency that the GOP's only goal is to ensure that he's a one-term president.

Did you know he was going to kill Gumby? Why, yes- that's all he ever talked about. In fact, he bought a new suit and said: "This is the suit I'll be wearing when I kill Gumby!"

Mitt Romney cannot win this election but, Obama could lose it. Yes, there is a difference. If you make under a million dollars a year and think Romney can lead anything but a raid on another business or a suspected gay kid's head, you're not clever either. Most Americans make well under $1 million in a lifetime, let alone 365 days. Romney only cares about average Americans making less money so that they don't cut into the profits of his friends. Those pesky wages!

Years ago I had a very good-looking friend who waitressed at a restaurant we worked at. I recall Bree declaring one election that her and her boyfriend were going to vote republican because they would make them rich. That's a common perception amongst low-information voters. Bree had spankability but, she wasn't terribly smart. I haven't seen her in years but I bet she's still spankable and doing well. Her business model turned out to be marrying successful men. Her boyfriend/first-husband turned out to be successful too (a fine restaurant in The Key's) but it was after Bree left him.

Many people choose money over love. Despite songs to the contrary, many people think money buys happiness. Even if not true, it sure can rent some! So, everybody wants love but, lacking good prospects at that, how 'bout some cash!

The thing is, you'll get neither cash nor love from this proposed republican cultural revolution. Where's the love in tricking people into voting against their own interests? Here we are, still in the midst of the worst recession since The Great Depression, and people are still buying into the ridiculous notion that not *raising* taxes on rich people and cutting social services is THE only way out. These job creators are  pimps who love the whores with a velvet glove over an iron fist.

We work for them. True, it's always been that way to varying degrees, some worse than others. Since FDR and up through Clinton, working people had a pretty good run. It wasn't easy and people died getting us Union benefits, things that some take for granted now and many others think should be done away with. Who knew that the 40 hour workweek, over-time and fair wages were bad things? Well, the rich and their political arm- The GOP- did, that's who. They also knew that feeding, clothing the poor and their children was a bad thing too. Expensive is what it is....so they say...

Well, fuck 'em. They've always been this way and really, there's no talking to them. They are obscene but, at least they have portfolio. The people who don't have portfolio- literally as well as metaphorically- are perhaps more obscene. The whore who sucks the dicks and takes the beating from "her man" when she fails to please him financially is pathetic and every bit obscene as the pimp when that whore is a $12 an hour security guard who dreams of killing lazy liberals and votes to bring to power the guy most likely to maybe make that fantasy a reality. One is as hard to reach as the other. At least with the pimp you can understand the tangible things he gets out of the situation. The whore gets enough to survive. Dignity is not a factor for either.

Dignity might leave the building in November.

Accounting lessons

Jesse Jackson Jr. is proposing that the minimum wage be raised to $10 an hour to adjust for inflation and give poor, working folks a leg up in this difficult economy. Before taxing rich people became THE issue in this difficult economy, raising the minimum wage was a semi-regular affront to the fiscal sensibilities of republicans everywhere.

As business persons, republicans know that raising wages, any time, anywhere, absolutely KILLS business. It forces them to find foreign countries with no oppressive laws to restrict their freedoms to employ people who, while not Americans, are Americans at heart in that they don't believe in punishing job creators who are kind enough to give them just enough to subsist on. Plus, it cuts into profits.

Mitt Romney is a businessperson. He wants to use his businessperson acumen to lead the United States as president. He thinks taxing our most successful citizens is a burden. He only pays at a 15% rate, not the 28% rate he could be paying at if not for loopholes and good accountants, and not the 32% rate he could be paying at if not for loopholes, good accountants AND GW Bush.

Huge corporations like Exxon and GE pay ZERO taxes for the same reasons. I think in the 50's the rate was something ridiculous like 90%. So, 28% or 32% or whatever per cent seems like great markdown, all things considered. I mean, did we not have rich people in the 50's? Were there no accountants and loopholes? It seems to this Ferrerman that, regardless of the percentage, rich people are still rich and most don't pay anywhere near whatever the percentage is at the time. So, what the fuck is the big deal?

Is it the thought that counts? Or do rich people simply hate having to pay accountants to work their mojo? Is this really a republican plan to divest accountants from the workforce? I wonder....

I think too that Jesse is fighting an uphill battle and at the wrong time. The so-called *job creators* (FKA "rich people") and their republican spokespeople, are busting unions as we speak in a pretty blatant attempt to divest Amercia (sic) of ALL wage laws. You might have noticed. So, trying to raise wages now seems like odd timing. Without Unions as the benchmark for wages, we are subject to the alleged free-market. This free market means that, if the powers that be are willing to pay $5 an hour for a skilled trade, you are free to take it or leave it. That's AMERCIA! Love it or leave it.

As a Ferrerman, I'm a huge fan of irony. The irony here that deserves my fandom is that, our republican friends, neighbors and internet idiots have NO FUCKING IDEA that this effects them too! If they think it's about fucking those smug, Union workers, it's really about fucking them AND the rest of the 99% that works for a living. Just because you don't work for minimum wage doesn't mean that the loss of those laws AND Unions won't affect your job. One of the by-products of the recession has been unemployment affecting nearly every profession. Young folks are graduating college with little prospects of work in their field. Let's face it- that $60k job that you have could be done by a kid out of college for one third of your pay. He or she will take it too. They have hefty student loans to pay and food intake requirements too. Of course, your employer could simply ask you to take a 2/3rds cut in pay to retain your job but, that would be illegal, right?

Oops! Be careful what you wish for....

They could be heroes!

"If Republicans in Congress believe Obama's policies won't work, they should pass them. If they don't work, then Obama won't get re-elected and they can just reverse everything in January."

 

The above quote is from some guy on the internet. He really raises a good point. The republican mission as stated by Mitch McConnell very early into Barack Obama's presidency was to do everything possible to make him a one-term president.

 

Now, we know from republicans in Congress and Fox news that everything Obama does is wrong!!!!! Ok. Well, it seems to me that, if this is so, a really smart political strategery would have been to let him fail. How the hell else is the young man going to learn??

 

It seems to me they'd have a cakewalk into The White House in November if they had just sorta kicked back, enjoyed a beverage and let him do whatever his young, confused but, well-intentioned heart desired. After four years of him screwing this up and that up, they could probably run a guy with ten working digits that only needed to sign whatever Congress put in front of him. It could really be that simple.

 

I mean, he hadn't ever been president before so he surely had all these perceptions about how things should be done. It's like teenagers. "Grown-ups are so unfair! When I have kids- boy, are things gonna be DIFFERENT!!!" You know how they are. Left to their own devices, they'd have cake for breakfast! Then, who do they come running to when they have a tummy ache? Uh huh....

 

It's a simple plan but, genius just the same in that it affords so much "I TOLD YOU SO!" time after the fact that, the country might not ever again elect another democrat. I mean- they're wrong and this proves it because, LOOK WHAT THEY DID!

 

It's also fiscally prudent. You don't have to waste billions of dollars (trillions?) trying to manipulate things through lobbyists when you just let the president do his dumbass things, fail (of course) and then you step in and show everybody how it's done.

 

They are well within their rights to disagree, of course, but, a shrug of the shoulders and hands thrown up in the air would register with the voters and surely be remembered at the next election. They could be heroes!

 

I wonder why they don't do this? Too easy? They should have nothing to fear but his failure, right?

 

 

On Wisconsin

Well, Wisconsin gave it the old college try. Like the Packers, they had a damn good offense with a so-so defense. They played a republican game though and got out-republicanned.

Here in Illinois, we don't recall idiot governors. We indict them. We take them out to metaphorical cornfields, hand them bleeping golden shovels and let them dig their own graves.

In the end, recalling Scott Walker for being an asshole is exactly like the republican idiots who wanted to *impeach* Barack Obama before he even took the oath of office. The motivation there was that he is black. With Walker, it's because he's an arrogant asshole. Neither are actual good reasons or even reasons.

Scott Walker is the Koch brother's bitch. Duh. Depending upon pronunciation, he's a kochsucker. That's clear and- who knows- maybe even literal. It's like voter fraud: just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

His surviving the recall wasn't an endorsement of his agenda of satisfying  Kochs by privatizing the state and killing unions. By and large the people are probably against that but, this maybe wasn't the way of doing it. Why not, as Mitch McConnell declared of Obama, endeavour to make Walker a one-term governor? The powers that be or wannabe can just stymie him at every turn. Go republican on him! It's nice that his first half-term has been mired in extreme controversy. I liked it when the democrats temporarily exiled themselves to Illinois. At best, it was a strong statement. And it extended the all important news cycle. It didn't hurt and it was relatively cheap.

In the end, Wisconsin lost because of millions of out of state dollars spent on Walker. Money talks. I've considered though that that is millions of dollars that won't go against Obama. This, by the way, was a vote on Walker being able to continue as governor, NOT a vote on Obama continuing as president. In fact, exit polling found the voters in favor of Obama. So, no loss for him.

I believe Wisconsin is too good of a state to be destroyed by Walker or Kochs. Most of their intended carnage can be undone. That remains to be seen. The good people of the state- some of them my friends- pulled together and tasted battle. They have not been defeated. Dare I say they are reloading?

ON WISCONSIN! It's not over yet....

Title Shot

When you're The Ferrerman, everybody wants to take you on. Every two-bit Topix troll thinks he can go toe to toe with you.

They can't. I seriously have yet to run across, for example, a republican that can honestly debate me without resorting to lies, innuendo and name-calling. If such a person exists, I've yet to find one on Topix. It's not that I'm that good. I'm very good but, I've seen better lib posters than me. Most have given up, I guess, having found no one to properly engage. It does get old. Though no Political Science Major myself, this shit's like arguing with 3rd graders.

Still, they keep coming. Honestly, I think that some really think that if they can defeat Ferrerman, they can defeat Obama! Dream on.

The rest, the non-political aspects of the threads have been interesting and fun. Long-time, dedicated non-readers recall that the genesis of this blog was to combat false allegations by Angelique770 that this intrepid reporter had sent picture(s) of my most prized possession- my penis. That's a fairly common allegation on Topix, as it turns out. I guess people fall for that if they want to. I was going to start a blog anyway but, that was a good start, just the same. I had a lot of fun taking apart that cheap trick and I got to write about my penis! Does it get any better than that? For those who missed that penis part, well, it's a long story.... ;)

In a lot of ways, Topix is a big, silly game. For some people it is role playing. It's kinda fun to figure out who is who and why they are the way they are and if they're really that way in real life. You never know for sure but, I think I get pretty close. I've never felt duped by television/movie mysteries because those are written writers to entertain. The false roads they lead you down are literary devices that lead to their conclusions. A good story doesn't have to be logical. Even your average "48 Hours" true murder mysteries is written and produced to either first make you think, "Oh- he did it!" and then think, "Hmm...maybe he didn't..." Then, in the end if there is a conviction or not, you wonder if the jury made the right call. These days reality can certainly be a perception.

Never minding pretty woman avatars that could be a 300 pound chick OR dude, it's incredibly hard to take internet people at, well, non-face value. Several months ago I had a woman personal message me wanting to have cyber sex after I had made ONE innocuous post to her. That took even me by surprise. I hadn't posted anything cute about spankings either. Seriously, I have to get a good feel for a woman before I do that and, even then, why mentally masturbate someone else and yourself? For one, I prefer to be really sure that she's actually a woman. That helps a lot! This woman seemed very needy to me. I knew nothing of her and she wanted cyber love. I checked her out via another woman that I fairly well trusted that *knew* her and at least I was reasonably certain that she had lady parts. Regardless, I wasn't the least bit interested in cyber sex nor, as it happened, her as a poster. She was a bit out there.

I had to at first believe she was a trap. I'm not even certain about her 'fairly well trusted friend'. But, who would trap a Ferrerman and for chrissakes- WHY?

Man, I don't know. I put nothing past these fuckers though.

Several months ago I started getting PM's from a high-profile, very notorious poster. This guy's always fighting with the clique and that scumbag, Sam, my "fan". My first thought was this was Sam. Well, allright. I know from rats and snitches and- golly- I'm well versed in using them to my advantage. The best and brightest don't gravitate to being rat bastards. Though in business sucking dick can be  a short-cut to the top, it's better to be good at what you do. Or, be a relative.

So, I had to be cautious. For one, the other guy was always losing avatars. Anyone of them could have been Sam. There's no way of knowing in this pretend world. So it's best not to give away secrets. Or tell a few tales... Planting information is good idea. Lead them down the wrong road. It's exactly what the rat does so, turn-about is fair play.

The PM's got me to thinking that this guy never really existed. Imagine a world of fake people where some of the people are so fake, they don't exist at all! Well, that boggles the mind. At it's best and worst, Topix is a story with many authors. Usually too many. It always gets mucked up with trolls and fighting but, it has its moments. This un-indicted co-conspirator could well be a character made up to add conflict- lots of it- to an already conflicted forum. I don't think he's a particularly good villian but, others are easy to please. Topix is rife with socks- fake profiles that people use to puff up their arguments or simply to have someone to talk to.

I was fairly certain that many *people* on the old Chicago dregs thread were figments of someone's imagination- most likely A770. Some might have even been pass-around profiles where certain posters would have custody of the character for a day or so. There were plenty of contradictions with some profiles. A770 *herself* couldn't keep her own story straight, sometimes, for example, being born in France and others here in the USA. She...would pass that off as one of her "interns" playing around on the computer....

And people bought that. Recall that her story was she was a psychologist with a grant from the government to study Topix.... So, interns, ya know, do the darndest things!

Most telling though is people who were high-profile coming and going, willy-nilly. The PMer was always *getting banned* and having to create a new profile. The thing was, he never actually did anything to get *banned*. He wasn't vulgar or homicidal like so many posters are. He was just *unpopular*...like so many posters are.... Thus he would *get banned* and that cocksucker Sam would take credit for the banning.

 Sam would regularly set a deadline for my being banned and that deadline would pass and he'd re-set it and that one would pass and so on and so on... After a few of those promises, it was beyond pathetic, so much so that it wasn't even funny anymore. Yet the other guy was always losing his, like every couple of weeks...for nothing... It wasn't much of a warning for a Ferrerman. I think it was more of forgetting a password for a profile and then it turned into a *warning*... Many of these assholes have 50 to a hundred or more, each requiring a separate e-mail address. What kind of a fucking psycho endeavours to do that? It truly is a sickness. AND, they manage to hold down well-paying jobs, unlike goddamned liberals...

Perhaps you can tell I've grown tired of this shit? The trolls are rampant and ravenous whether you feed them or not and whether it's politics or socializing. It's all the same. Anyone looking at a title-shot with The Ferrerman better dream on. No one is worthy. I shall retire as champion! I'm in The Hall Of Fame, ya know? Reality sets in for some...not so much for others...

Good luck! I'll be *around*. After all, I'm the reason this town is afraid of Ferrerman!

Smokescreen

Cook County is going to raise it's tax on cigarettes one dollar per pack. It's what is known in the government business as a "sin tax"  or "easy money".

The thing is, it's not such easy money anymore. With taxes being so high, many, many people have quit smoking. So, because of that development, they have to make up for that lost revenue by...raising taxes!

In the presidential race, taxes are a big issue. People are tired of Barack Obama and his high taxes and they want it to stop. Well, yeah but, the thing is, Obama hasn't raised taxes. He hasn't even raised taxes on our glorious non-job creators. In fact, all he wanted to do was end The Bush Tax Cuts For Rich People and bring them back to the low rate they were at during the Clinton years. You know- like when bread is on sale Tuesday only, Wednesday does NOT bring an increase. It just brings it back to Monday's price. You shoppers know what I'm talking about.

People who bleat about 'state's rights' bemuse me. No matter what state you live in, you're getting the bejeezus taxed out of you by the state. They sit around and think of new taxes, all day, every day. They cut a lot of stuff too, to 'save money' but, they do this AND raise taxes. So, if you're some kinda tea bagger and you think we don't need a federal government for anything but whatever federal governments do when they're not governing, think again. It's your local city and state government that is taxing, again and again. And again. I might as well mention: again, again.

Ever wonder why marijuana is still illegal? Wonder why it isn't legal and taxed, like so many experts say it should be? It's a basically harmless drug that grows naturally. It's far, far less harmful than alcohol. If there's a God, surely he put it on earth for a reason and that reason probably wasn't to fill up prisons. You would think it would be a natural for taxes. People love this shit! Let them have it and tax the bejeezus outa it, right?

You'd think that would be lucrative and right up every state's fiscal alley. But, I really think that they've crunched the numbers and figured out, there's more money to be made keeping the shit illegal,

Huh? Ferrerman, whatchu been smokin'?

Well, nothing. I think I might have smoked the equivalent of three-four joints this century. And not a whole lot in the previous century as you might think. It tends to make me tired. For a kid who came of age in the 70's, I'm a bit of a lightweight with drugs. It just never became a habit. Honestly, for some it is. I've known a whole slew of dudes who smoke a quarter ounce a day, every day. Some don't drink. Most have quit smoking. It cuts into the weed budget. Really. It's not an addiction similar to heroin or alcohol at all. There's no withdrawal symptoms that I know of. Cigarettes are known to be tougher to quit that heroin. Pot? I don't know. They just stay at it. I'm a cheap high. Decent weed = a couple of hits for me and I'm fine and then I go to sleep.

So, I'm not agin it, at all. Don't be driving though. You don't drink and drive, don't smoke and drive. And no texting!

I saw some law enforcement guy on a program about weed and he said to not bother legalizing it as it wouldn't take that much away from those nasty, murderous cartels in Mexico. I beg to differ. They are rich people- "job creators"- and if our rich people can't handle a 3% rise in their taxes, it's because they're greedy assholes, just like the cartels. So, fuck 'em. They'll be pissed but, they'll get over it.

But, what happens to the privatized prisons that count on potheads (and other drug offenders) for business if pot is legal? And the courts? And the cops? All of these people make money off of weed. Lots of it. Frankly, I think they make more than the states can off of taxing it. Pot is BIG BUSINESS. The government has it's hands deep into it but, in a way that makes them look sacrosanct. I used to think that the US didn't want to tarnish it's image by being the world leader that sanctions drug use. That may be part of it still. According to the program I saw, pot isn't legal anywhere in the world. It's just over-looked at best. Decriminalization is in effect in some states/cities but, there are fines involved and dealing quantities is another story. It's still about money.

And look at the hubhub over medical marijuana. You have got to believe that BIG PHARMA is against that. While it's not a wonder drug, it's better for you than much of what they offer. No harmful side effects. Many cancer patients know this.

I equate it to prohibition. That seemingly well-intended nonsense made the Outfit what it was for several decades. Now we have street gangs and cartels and a more vulgar degree of mayhem that might shock and awe Al Capone himself.

And all for an innocent little weed, growing here and there, and- when you smoke it- you feel very good. What's so bad about feeling good?

Ihre Papiere, bitte!

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2012/05/florida-voter-registration-restrictions-harsh-and-impractical-federal-judge-rules/

"Well," they always state, "you have to show ID to buy beer, cigarettes or cash a check so, why not show a photo ID to vote?"

Well, because there is dilemma involved in those actions that often result in crime and a photo ID is a good way of attempting to thwart that dilemma/crime.

Voter fraud is not a dilemma. In fact, it's .00004% of all voting. Not much of a dilemma really.

What is a dilemma is republicans losing close races and scrambling to figure out how they can gain an edge in those close races. When you are stuck running a Mitt Romney- a guy your own base doesn't really like- you have to scramble a bit to help your cause. So, to that end, you try and make folks believe that voter fraud is rampant!

It's not. That .00004% figure is real. Most cases of voter fraud turn out to be clerical errors. Someone moved and didn't change their address- things of that nature.

Our voting process isn't broken so, why fuck with it? The answer is to thwart likely democratic voters. These include young people, blacks and seniors. Part and parcel of this non-issue of the dire necessity of photo IDs has also been to restrict early voting and absentee ballots. This is where students and seniors factor in. If a kid lives in Illinois but attends school out west, he or she may not be able to afford to travel home just to vote in an election. Troops overseas as well. Old folks love early voting as it is a convenience. And many city dwellers do not drive. And they are also people of color. And all these people tend to have the common denominator of being likely democratic voters.

THAT is the dilemma. Fraud doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. You lose a race by a mere 5,000 votes or you barely win by the same, you do whatever you can to make sure that doesn't happen again. The link above shows the depraved politics of it all. A 48 hour window to turn in registrations? Really? Why?

Hoops are one thing. Flaming hoops are another. It wasn't that long ago that our Southern states had poll taxes and literacy tests and the like to specifically inhibit Blacks from voting. I see people talking about bringing that back, saying only homeowners should vote...landowners...you should have to pass a test....

Oh, NOT to exclude Blacks, of course. Just simply, people who  have land and the intelligence to vote have earned the right to vote and have more of a vested interest in our country than renters, I guess.

Suddenly, voting is a privilege?

It's been years for me but, you prove who you are on the front end when you register. After that, you vote in your precinct amongst your friends and neighbors and your signature is examined by someone you likely already know and you vote. It isn't like buying cigarettes or beer. You can buy those things at thousands of places. You can only vote in one. After the election, votes are examined for discrepancies and fraud. Corrections are made. Some votes might be rejected. Usually it doesn't matter unless the election was close. Later, the results of the election become official. This works, now, better than ever.

This is still America. It's not 1930's Germany. One of the ways we keep it from being Nazi Germany is by voting. Comparing today's republicans with Nazi's has become cliche in way. I can't help it though because these people keep fucking acting like Nazi's when they do these things. Hitler and his minions didn't come right out and tell Germany of their plans to murder six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and various other "undesirables". Most Germans would have balked at that. You have to ease people into genocide, make them think it's necessary. You know, even later, as the war unraveled Germany, it was still a *secret* because they didn't advertise.

It's what the GOP is NOT telling people now that is most frightening. They're not telling us what their end game is. As long as they do not, they can achieve it. Similar to the recent USSC decision that allows allows any person arrested for any offense to be strip-searched, they've already got their minions saying: "Well, if you don't like it, just don't break the law! DUH!"

It makes you wonder if, back in the day in Germany, similar idiots didn't say: "If you are not Jewish, Gypsy, homosexual (etc.) what do you have to worry about?"

Well, everything, I suspect. Past is prologue.