Hollywood and elitism

One of the blessings (or curses) of spending a large portion of your day slapping the same color paint on a different wall is that it often gives you time to let your mind wander. The other day I was thinking about Hollywood and that sometimes the stuff they think up for an episode of one of the cop shows can be pretty sick. What kind of mind comes up with this stuff? And, not that I have ever been a prude, but why is it that there's so much sleeping around in Hollywood? Why does it seem that every show has to have at least 1 homosexual, a broken marriage, fatherless children/single moms, an extramarital affair and/or blatant casual sex?
Anyway, on Wednesday one of the topics of discussion on the radio was Roman Polanski. After being convicted of rape and sodomy 30 (?) years ago of a then 13 year old girl who he got drunk and fed drugs before attacking, Polanski took off to Europe to avoid serving his sentence. After all these years, the government is trying to extradite him back to the US to serve his sentence. At first, I wondered why, all the sudden after so long, they are finally trying to do something. With the high regard that I hold the current Administration, I naturally got the idea that Polanski is just a smoke screen to get attention off the health care thing for a while. But that's a topic for another day.
Yesterday morning it was reported that at least 150 of Hollywood's big wigs had petitioned the Governor to drop the whole matter, because Polanski is an Oscar winning director and (my words) is too important to be subjected to the inconvenience of jail time. He remains one of the Hollywood elite, be he a dirt bag or not. Last night I read that Whoppi Goldberg was lamenting that what Polanski did was not "rape rape". What? He had forcible whoppi with an underage, drunk and drugged girl. Though a 13 year old can't legally give consent, he still didn't have it.
So, what's up with the Hollywood elite? I am sure that the 6 normal people in Hollywood would want Polanski jailed, even while feeling sorry for him for what Charlie Manson did to his wife. But what about the rest of them? Does being in the movie/TV industry make you any better than the rest of us?
At least Mel Gibson is out there to provide some balance. God bless him!

Messy renters (or "what people learn")

Working for the people I do, my days are made up mostly of either rehabbing a newly acquired property or repairing an empty rental unit. Last week one of the rentals (a 2 family) became empty, due to evictions in both "apartments". The first floor had been rented by a single woman with a couplee of kids. The upper floors were rented by her sister. Between them, there were 2 female adults, a couple of teens and a few younger ones. When the first floor family was evicted, they just moved up stairs. Last Wednesday, they all had to move out. Both were evicted due to nonpayment of rent.


They did not completely destroy the building. They just did their best to make as much of a mess of it as they could, and this was before they were informed that they had to leave. Of course, I had to go help clean up after they were moved out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get pictures of the mess they left, but this might give a clue: (preview shows a lot of space below the pictures before the rest of the text. Just scroll down).













In the some of the black bags are left behind toys and clothing (quite a bit of it). There is also food found on the floor, used feminine products that were thrown in the bathroom cabinet, dirty diapers that were thrown out the window and the leftovers from someone taking a dump on the middle of the floor (they weren't too happy about being evicted). These were some very classy people.

One of my favorite of their exploits is breaking a hole in the porch floor so that they could just throw their trash under the porch. This after requesting and getting new garbage cans paid for by the owner (which would get filled, then not taken out to the street for at least 3 weeks). When I cleaned out under the porch, I got a clue as to where the rent money went:









(In case you can't read the labels, only one of the cans contained cola.)

Someone in the family was quite fond of beer (not that I have anything against that). I hope it was one of the adults.

It may sound heartless, but for the most part I have little sympathy for the adults that got evicted. I do feel for the kids though. Not so much that they might be homeless, I think they had somewhere else to stay. Mostly I feel sorry for them because of what their mothers are teaching: it's ok to not take care of the place you live and to live in a mess. It's ok to be an overweight, lazy single mom with no job. It's more important to have that fancy tv than it is to pay the bills.

I guess I should probably feel sorry for the mothers too, they probably learned their lifestyle from their parents.

I'm back (and have something to say)

Over the last few months, the topic of "health care" has been the focus of much national attention. Conservatives and liberals calling each other names and refusing to even consider each others opinions. I've been listening and I have a few thoughts of my own.

First, the debate isn't really about "health care", it's about health insurance. I defy anyone to find a country with better overall health care than the U.S. How often do we hear about people from other countries coming here to get treatment for some major ailment? My bet is a lot more often then Americans going elsewhere for treatment.

Some believe that it would be a good thing for the Federal government to provide health insurance for all of us. I don't and for many reasons. One, I prefer not to have the Government involved in my personal business. I don't want Nancy Pelosi or any of her minions to have the power to look through my medical records, for any reason. Also, I've seen how well the government runs things. Social Security, Medicare and other Federal feel good programs are broke or nearly broke. Our highways, bridges, dams and other infrastructure are in disrepair and often poorly managed. Our President himself even pointed out that the Post Office (a quasi government agency) is struggling severely while FedEx and UPS are holding their own. And now we're contemplating letting them control health insurance?

The role of the Federal government is not supposed to be much more than protecting us from our enemies and providing the infrastructure to allow us to have a opportunity to make the most of ourselves. To ensure equal opportunities, NOT equal results. It is not to provide for us from cradle to grave.

I also have a problem with the notion that our employers "owe" us health insurance. The only people any employer "owes" health insurance is those who are covered by a union (or personal service) contract that includes health insurance benefits. Just because someone decides to employ me, that doesn't automatically, magically make them responsible for my health insurance, any more than they should be responsible for my car, house, boat or any other insurance. If they decide to provide a benefit of that type, great for me. If not, I can either do without, find insurance elsewhere or get a job that does provide insurance.

There are a few things that I think could be done to improve the situation:

1. Instead of the employer (for those who are covered at work) requiring all employees to chose from a few select plans, giving the same amount of money (maybe in the form of vouchers) to each employee to use to secure their own plan (which could include the employer provided plan). Such monies would be exempt from income tax (as it is now) provided it is used for health insurance. Unused moneys would be taxable as income.

2. Do something about the malpractice suits. If the hospital makes a mistake, they should be financially responsible for monetary and other damages. However, these huge amounts people are given in "punitive" damages are causing the rates doctors pay for insurance to go up at a rate of at least three times inflation. Their rates go up, their fees go up, insurance costs go up and then, premiums go up (and doctors practice defensive medicine, ordering test after test to protect themselves in case of a law suit). Put a cap on punitive damages so that people are not essentially winning the lottery just because a doctor made a mistake. And if lawyers were not permitted to use punitive damages to calculate their fees, they might be a little more selective as to which case they actually take.

3. If a person has more than one job and they each provide health insurance benefits( or a husband and wife have both have jobs that provide for health insurance) figure out a way in which the benefits can be combined at a reduced overall cost to the employers (and to the worker)

4. Remove the percentage cap on the amount of medical expenses that someone can deduct from their tax's. Premiums, co-pays, meds should all be deductible at their full cost if we are going to provide for any deduction at all.

These are just a few ideas that could be considered. But whatever, I don't want Uncle Sam deciding what coverage I'm going to have, who I'm going to get it from or what specific benefits must be covered. (If an insurance company wants to cover abortions, for example, and I don't want any of my money going to these procedures, then I should be able to find a carrier that doesn't cover them. On a side note, I'm not sure that insurance companies should cover birth control pills, condoms or Viagra. Why should my money be used, in part, to pay for someone ese's "fun"?).

Happy Birthday Rebecca

Welcome to the world of double digits.

It is hard to believe it was 10 years ago that you came into our lives. I hope your day turned out good for you.

I love you squirt.

Daddy

Camping

Recently, Kelly, Jonathan and Rebecca went camping with several other mothers and kids. While I originally wished I could have gone with them, it's probably better that I didn't. After all, there were no adult males in the bunch.


I was, however, reminded of the last time I went camping. About 15 years ago, seven of us went to Red River Gorge to spend the weekend camping, hiking, checking out caves and burning up a variety of red meats on the camp fire. The group consisted of a married couple with their two pre-teen sons, a single guy I haven't seen since, a female co-worker who I believe wanted me to be the father of her children and myself. The married couple had their tent, the single guy had his and the other four of us shared a tent. Originally, when we set up the tents, my stuff was on one side of the tent, the boys were in the middle and the female co-worker was on the other side. When we called it a night, her stuff magically had moved itself next to mine.


Did I mention that this trip occurred in January. To say it was a tad cold would be an understatement. The first night, the temperature dropped down to 15 below zero. It was so cold that when the moisture from our breath contacted the inside of the tent, it immediately froze. If anyone happened to bump up against the side of the tent, we would have an indoor snow storm. Unfortunately, with four of us crowded into the tent, two of us were in constant contact with the sides so it snowed all night.


And the snow wasn't only inside the tent. Outside, while we were attempting to sleep, 2 or 3 inch's accumulated on the ground. When we all came out the next morning, we made some breakfast and proceeded with our plans for the day. While it continued to snow a little throughout the day, it did warm up enough that the low temperature that night was 5 below.


On our last morning, we gathered up all of our stuff, cleaned up our mess and hiked back to the rear wheel drive Ford Windstar that brought us there. When we got out of the woods and into the clearing (the parking lot) was when we realised that we had severely miss guessed the amount of snowfall for the weekend. While the snow on the ground under the canopy of the trees was only 5-7 inch's, it was a whole lot deeper than that in the parking lot. It was deep enough that we couldn't see the front bumper of the van. But, we climbed in anyway and headed out of the park.


Even though the vehicle we were riding in was not really ideal for driving in the snow, we only had one problem. As we drove along the unplowed roads, the wedge shape of the front of the van caused snow to quickly pile up on the windshield. We had to stop 3 or 4 times just to clear off the windshield. Once we got back to the plowed main roads, it was pretty much smooth sailing. Or, at least until we got to Georgetown, Ky. Unfortunately, all roads headed north out of Georgetown had been declared impassable and were closed (I-75 remained closed for at least a week). Fortunately, we were able to find a motel with an available room where we spent the night (and all took much needed showers). But boy did we all get an ear full.


As we had no radio or any other means of contact while we were in the gorge, we had no idea of the magnitude of the storm we were camping out in. However, our friends and family's at home all knew and were worried sick about us and had no reservations when it came to telling us about it. We were just oblivious (and cold).


We were able to find an open road the next day and obviously made it home safely. But, the next time I go camping, I think I might take a radio along just in case.

Parenting

The other day while I was at work, I heard a mother across the street going off on one of her children. Mind you, I have no idea what the issue was and I wasn't paying enough attention to hear exactly what was being said. That is until she went to leave. At that point she said something to the effect that she didn't want her little jerk child going with her.

Last summer, again as I was working on a house (this one right around the corner from church), the lady next door got upset with her daughter. All I remember hearing is momma calling her little girl a lying little "bitch".

When we were living in Ky., we used to regularly hear the guy next door letting his kids have it and one of our current neighbors has a tendency to go off on his kids.

Now I know that I occasionally get mad at my children and at times I'm close to pulling my hair out (if you've seen my head recently, that's due to heredity, not the kids (or the wife)). I sure hope that I exhibit a little more grace and restraint than this when the kids get under my skin. I am confident that the next time I get mad at either or both of them that these examples will be lingering in the back of my mind.

It's funny how things work out

Talk about a day that didn't turn out as planned!

Jonathan and I were supposed to pick up some tickets at the will call window at Great American ball park and watch the Reds game today as Kelly and Rebecca went to a baby shower.

We all went to church this morning and I did "tech" for the first service. By the time the first service was over, Kelly and Rebecca had already left church to go to Dayton for the shower. Jonathan and I took our bags of peanuts and headed to Covington to park the van and go to the game. On the way, we stopped at a fast food place for some lunch to go and parked the van on the streets of Covington. We went down by the river to watch the boats as we ate our lunch. After a quick walk to the nearest store to pick up some Diet Cokes for the game, we headed across the Suspension bridge to the park. We went to the "will-call" windows and found that the tickets that we were supposed to use were not to be found. Not having enough cash on me to buy tickets, Jonathan and I wound up having to go back across the bridge and to the van to get home in time to watch the game at home. Jonathan seemed devastated and on the verge of breaking out in tears as we were headed back to the van, but he never shed a tear.

When we got back home, I went inside to watch the game on TV. Much to my surprise, Jonathan asked if he could see if any of his friends were home so he could play. As it turned out, he was invited to go swimming with one of his neighborhood friends in their pool.

Kelly and Rebecca got home from the shower before Jonathan got back from swimming. I wound up pushing Rebecca on the swing for a while then she got to play in the sprinkler in our back yard. This turned into a water fight between the two of us at first, then Jonathan came home and joined in.

The game went into extra innings. While it was still going, I roasted some ears of corn on the grill for the whole family and we had some nice family time out on the back deck. The evening wound up with the four of us (and Willie) going for a walk, a game of wiffle ball in the front yard, then all of us watching something together on TV while we nibbled on some pop corn.

Had Jonathan and I actually been able to attend the game, he'd have missed out on the chance to go swimming, there would have been no time with the swing and Rebecca and no water fight. I'm not sure that any of the other family things would have happened either.

There will always be opportunities to go to a ball game. As the day turned out, I have to say I'm glad this one didn't work out as planned. I am especially proud of Jonathan for the way he handled the disappointment and heart break he experienced. My great big hearted little man is growing up right before my eyes!