Like I said, Gotta Love XKCD! Original Here.

Number of gun owners in the U.S.: 80,000,000 Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500 Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188

Number of physicians in the U.S.: 700,000 Number of accidental deaths caused by physicians per year (all age groups): 120,000 Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

Statistically, [...]]]> Something to think about…

Number of gun owners in the U.S.: 80,000,000
Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500
Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188

Number of physicians in the U.S.: 700,000
Number of accidental deaths caused by physicians per year (all age groups): 120,000
Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

Statistically, Doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one doctor. Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand. (As a public health measure, statistics on lawyers were withheld for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical aid.)

******************************************* I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count [...]]]> This was passed on to me by a friend on Facebook. I don’t know that it’ll happen, but I’d sure like to see it.

*******************************************
I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends. My friend and neighbor wants to promote a “Congressional Reform Act of 2010″. It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I know many of you will say, “this is impossible”. Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress – the entity that represents us.

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heros..

Thanks,

A Fellow American

***********************************

Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2. No Tenure / No Pension:

A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11 .

The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

******************************

Ok, if you like this, pass the URL “http://letthesmokeout.com/2010/02/how-to-fix-congress/” (no quotes) on to all your friends, and feel free to comment here.

“Always do right, This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
Mark Twain

Must have had some Obamatron visit and report me to Photobucket, where I had the pic hosted from before. Moved it to a less uptight pic host.

It is by Caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone [...]]]> First, a parody of the Mentat Mantra, as heard in the movie (not the book, or the Sci Fi mini series) “Dune”:

It is by Caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shaking,
the shakes become a warning.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

(Yes, I changed it a bit. Something wrong with the flow, my caffeine enhanced mind says. “Shakes” works better because the original word was “Stains.” And SCREW the Starbucks version…)

Second, I’d like to brag about my IQ:

Normally the image would have a link to free-iqtest.net. However, I wouldn’t recommend gong there, as the amount of “Free” surveys, offers, and other general BULLSHIT you have to click on, answer yes, no, skip, pass, just to get your score, would try the patience of Job.

Threeth (3th) and finally, speaking of patience, I would like to say that the spelling-challenged person that thanked me for my “Patients” on a sign posted on a gas pump that you need to learn to spell, or pay for my medical education to make me a Doctor that can have patients.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Original either thru picture or here.

So, if you tried to visit and the site was down, [...]]]> I moved the site back to Heliohost. CXR has gotten merged with some other provider and everything is half-broken. On top of this, I’m not sure, from the notices they sent out, that they will be providing a free hosting account for long.

So, if you tried to visit and the site was down, that’s why. Either it was before I moved and CXR was dead, or LTSO was in the process of moving.

I’m not sure how my own life will be measured, but if my daughters are any indication of how my life might be viewed, then I’ll say it will be viewed well.

I’ll probably [...]]]> My youngest daughter introduced me to “Seasons of Love” from the movie “Rent”

I’m not sure how my own life will be measured, but if my daughters are any indication of how my life might be viewed, then I’ll say it will be viewed well.

I’ll probably edit this with something a bit deeper and more meaningful later.

In the US:

There is a guy on the corner begging for change that hasn’t worked in 2 years. There is a family that lost their house because their ARM rose and dad lost his job. There are kids going hungry every day because mommy had to choose between food or medical [...]]]> There was an earthquake in Haiti recently.

In the US:

There is a guy on the corner begging for change that hasn’t worked in 2 years.
There is a family that lost their house because their ARM rose and dad lost his job.
There are kids going hungry every day because mommy had to choose between food or medical insurance.
There is a woman that is a widow because her husband was killed in a drive-by shooting.

But there was an earthquake in Haiti, so all the media are crying for Haiti and telling you to send your money there.

I am in no way minimizing the amount of damage and the pure human suffering that is going on on that island right now, but there is a whole shitload more suffering and pain going on IN OUR OWN COUNTRY that your dollars would be welcomed to fund efforts to assuage. Let the rest of the world help Haiti, and sure, we can supply transport or something.

But please folks, before you get all dewy-eyed and reach for the checkbook for Haiti in response to the latest pics on CNN for Fox, remember that “Charity Starts At Home” can mean it needs to GO to our home first.

The folks that just lost the family home, been in the family for at least 2 generations, where’s their help? Or the guy that’s been out of work for 2 years? He’s not getting any help beyond welfare. Good thing he’s raising his grandchildren, or he’d be SOL.

Yet we spend billions on foreign aid, wars that started with a just cause but are now just efforts to remake those countries in our own image. All this on countries that’ll cheer when something bad happens in the U.S. Faugh!

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t help other countries. I am saying that we can’t help others unless our own house is in order, and it isn’t. There are too many in this country that have been stuck with un-natural disaster, that now it’s time for those in power to give some REAL thought and aid to solving the problems of the PEOPLE.