What happened to the choice to choose?? For w/e 4/2/10

There has been a lot of talk in the news the past month or so about President Obama wanting to pass a national healthcare plan. From the start, I was opposed to it because I firmly believe that it is not the federal government's right to force people to do something let alone make us buy a specific product, in this case, healthcare. As I have done more research on the matter in the past few weeks, I didn't think that this would ever be passed because the constitution of the United States doesn't allow for Congress to impose anything other than taxes and from what I have heard on the news or read in the paper, this is not a tax. Unfortunately, it has passed and President Obama signed it into law today, amid states declaring that they will fight for the constitutionally of it.

Part of this healthcare bill also dictates the IRS to be the one who makes sure people pay and enforce the penalty if you choose not to participate. The IRS, I thought, is only responsible to collect taxes, not healthcare payments. I am not the only one who feels this way as the IRS Joint Committee on Taxation states that "The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for the collection of taxes does not apply to the collect of this penalty", which basically means we have no authority to enforce anything, however they will intercept your income tax refund to collect the penalty. Sounds like you don't really have a choice, do you? Whatever happened to our freedoms?

I hope that the US Supreme Court, if the battle from the states reaches their doorstep, makes a ruling declaring it unconstitutional. They can not do anything until it is challenge in court and hopefully that is sooner than later. There is a similar government case ( off limits in this class) that took place in 1973, that ruled that people under the Ninth Amendment of the US constitution that the reservation of rights is asserted to the people. In this case of the national healthcare bill, it seems that this takes away the choice, which essentially takes away our rights. I have heard some people say that this is no different than mandatory car insurance, but the facts are that 1) States have the right-This is how Massachusetts has a mandatory state healthcare program and 2) Driving is a choice. If you choose to drive, then you need to insure your vehicle to drive it on the roads. If you don't like it, fine, don't drive and take public transportation.

So as you can see, this will be a highly contested and debated topic for months to come. Our liberties are being infringed upon, and hopefully the courts will make sure that we are not violated.

Winter Weather/ Dirt Track Riding

Well here I am, waiting until the last minute for write a second blog this week. But for a change, I did it on purpose. I was going to come up to Joplin this weekend to visit family and friends, but ever since Monday, the weathermen have been mumbling something about a blizzard here in OKC and Tulsa this weekend. Right now, as I write this, it is raining, lightning flashing in the distance and the occasional rumble of thunder inciting the repetitive, "What was that noise?" from my three year old. It was 72 degrees this afternoon and now tomorrow, 6 to 14 inches of snow with 45 mile per hour winds will cause blizzard like conditions similar to Christmas Eve. WTF? Really. In March? So, I decided to leave work early today since there were absolutely no faculty or staff around at work to just play with my kids on a death vehicle as my wife calls it. More on that later. It could be a good decision at this point to not go to Joplin this weekend because as of the latest weather report, Joplin is now expected to get 12-22 inches of snow. Hopefully class is cancelled next week at MSSU...Oh wait, its spring break and I am also an online student so we don't get snow days like the others. BUZZKILL!! Now to the death vehicle.

My wife has been bugging me about trading in my Mustang and getting a four door car. Why you may ask? Because she thinks it is impractical since we have two small kids and one day I might need to take them somewhere in my car and since it is a two door and lacks the newfangled (I can't believe the blogger spell check allowed that word) safety harnesses that are on car seats nowadays. And I need to grow up. 32 year old men shouldn't drive a sports car. My typical, ummm, a grandma driving a four Taurus can outrun me doesn't make her back off. I say whatever though, age is relative to me and you married me, so suck it up. We dated for a few years before we got married so you knew what you were getting. Me and the car. So as it was brought up once again that we should go look at cars, I brought up the fact that I need a motorcycle. All it took was my sad puppy dog look and she fell for it...again. If you have read any of my post, I can be really persuasive. So I got a 2005 Dazon 125CC scooter with only 2900 miles. The guy that I bought it from had a friend get deployed and couldn't come home to pack up his house, so this guy put his stuff in storage and his payment was this scooter over two years ago. I have seen it sitting for quite some time and I noticed that it never moves so I figured I would go ask him if he wanted to sell it. Cha-Ching!! It is pretty quick and I can run around in the evenings around the main OU campus to the library to study since I live in the neighborhood. ( I don't really go to the library and it looks cool to have your hat turned backwards and a backpack on while you ride. But it's more like a run to the local campus pizza place where they have a slice and a draft beer for 5 dollars. It is a heck of a lot better than those crappy, get healthy Subway sandwiches with no drink.) This brand of scooter however is no longer made but all Chinese scooters have the same engines and practically nothing to them so I figured it would be an easy fix and total cost was only $200 for the scooter, $75 for a new CVT belt and an oil change and $125 for tags since all scooters in Oklahoma above 50 CC are considered motorcycles. The thing is, I need to stay alive on this death vehicle and once I prove that I am capable, then I get a real motorcycle.

If any of you have little boys you know they love motorcycles. So as a reward, I give them rides around the yard. Our house is perfectly in the middle of the plot, so I can open the gates on both sides and make a circle around the house. After repeating the process hundreds of times, there are now indentions in the grass where I go around, so in essence, I have created my own dirt track. Needless to say, it rained the other day so the yard was soft and we got covered in mud which me and the posse tracked in the house and momma the whip cracker wasn't to happy. So what else is new? It's me and two boys against her. WE RULE! But I also forgot to tell her that since we are expecting snow this weekend and I have to work on Monday unless OU closes the campus, we will have 4 houseguests in about 2 hours. Since we couldn't go up there, my brother and mom (the outlaw to my wife) are coming and don't plan on leaving until Monday. The couch will be calling my name later. I can't remember everything especially when someone calls while I am acting like kid riding a death vehicle. See. I cant be trusted.

25th Birthday of the First .Com

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The Weekly Rant or Thank You

We all owe Ms. Chism a great big thank you, especially those of us who took English 101 last semester. I didn't expect to get such a big response on my post about being burned out on writing last week, but coincidentally, Ms. Chism is allowing us to forgo paper number 4, or paper number 1,925, 575 as it feels to some of us. The only downside I see is we still have to write blogs. But I must say, the forbearance is greatly appreciated and it has given me a renewed sense of academic drive to finish writing blogs until the end of the semester. Now if only we could extend the deadline of paper 3 by one week. Let's assess the pros and cons.

Pros: We could probably use an extra week to just decompress and take a break from school as online classes usually still have assignments or required readings to do during spring break. We as online students also do not really benefit from snow days, or when the university closes due to weather or holidays. As long as blackboard is up, we still have to meet the guidelines. I could personally use the week to reread on how to properly write a paper and how to properly cite, before I turn in another catastrophe. The last pro is most of us in this class have kids that are in school and spring break for them is next week, not the following week from March 22 to March 26th that MSSU chose. That extra week could be used to go back to bed after dropping the kids off at school, or actually doing something relaxing such as a day at the spa or the afternoon at the movies.

So now let's take a look at the cons. Well to be honest, I can't think of any. Really. Unless you go and drink all week long and kill the millions of braincells containing the knowledge of writing, we will all be okay. Our scores will be higher, which in turn raises the class average, which in turn assures that the head of the English department is happy with Ms. Chism's teaching because the fail rate is low, which then assures that she remains at MSSU for as long as she wishes to continue teaching, which after this circle is followed, ensures that students, like us, continue to benefit from her, making all of us better writers. Or closer to meeting the 5 writing intensive courses required for graduating. It's your choice on how you want to look at it. Be rest assured that no matter how we use the extra week, it won't go to waste.

So to all of you who have read this, there is a box at the top where you can vote on whether or not the deadline should be extended by one week for paper 3 to be due. If that doesn't persuade her, is anyone up to hire a hacker to shut down blogger.com? We can't write, if we can't log in, can we?

The Outsourcing of Breastfeeding

We have all heard of outsourcing, but not like this. I read this article on time.com about people that breast feed children that are not their own. Although this practice was abandoned in the 19th century, these so called "wet nurses" are slowly climbing back. This practice is growing because in the US, 70 percent of babies are breast fed at any given time, more women are in the workforce and more women are getting breast implants. Studies have shown that children who are breast fed for longer than 7 months tend to have higher IQ's and may be healthier and happier. I think that this practice is a little weird and something that I would not have allowed my children to do regardless of the value.

First of all, what about the transmission of viruses that can be passed during breastfeeding? There are probably not any regulations and according to the time.com article above there is a company that places wet nurses nationwide. The company is called Certified Household Staffing and their website looks like a teenager threw it together for a class project. They boast a lifetime replacement guarantee and thank goodness they at least do background and drug checks, but there is no mention of disease checks. Viruses such as HIV, hepatitis or tuberculosis can be passed along to the infant. Seems a little sketchy!!

Secondly, how long can a person express breast milk? ( I am a guy and have no idea as my wife did not with both our children. I unfortunately, had no choice and still get sick at the thought of "latching" onto my mom. ) This article states that a lady by the name Brenda has outsourced her breast milk to 10 babies in the last 7 years. It is good money and she said that she will use it to send her two kids to college. At the going rate of $1000 a week to be milked, that is a pretty substantial amount. I figure at that rate and the fact that babies breastfeed for typically the first 6 months, that is around 60 months of work and at $4000 a month, she raked in approximately $240,000. Where do you claim that amount on your 1040EZ federal tax form? I did find the answer to the opening question and it says that as long as milk is expressed, you can lactate for twenty, thirty plus years. Holy Cow! No pun intended.

What makes this worse is the fact that even if you don't feel comfortable hiring a wet nurse, you can go to a milk bank and make a withdrawal. Seriously. There is a company called National Milk Bank that collects donated breast milk and makes it available to premature and critically ill babies. There is no dispute that, breast milk is best for a developing baby. I clicked on "shop" on their website, www.nationalmilkbank.org, and thank goodness, milk was not an option as there are probably wackos out there that would order up and do weird things with it. This is the only breast milk sharing program that I could actually see a medical benefit for.

As you can see, this practice of outsourcing milk mommies is a no go for me as I don't think it is safe, nor regulated enough to keep children safe.

Blahhhhggggggsss

So here it is another Friday and two blogs to post. I did happen to procrastinate on posting this week because the weather was nice the last few days and some yard work desperately needed to be done before the grass starts growing. We also had a tree in the front yard get struck by lightning a few weeks ago during one of those freak winter thunderstorms and the bark literally exploded off the tree into the yard. It was quite a mess and something that I did not think could be chopped up in the lawnmower like I usually do if something in laying in the yard. We all do it...just run the thing over and let the lawnmower chop it up. But lets get back to the point of this post, blogs.

Who else would rather write another paper instead of doing eight more weeks of blog postings? It could be open topic, a short story, fiction or non-fiction on whatever we choose. I personally have become burned out on doing these and I know that there must be others that are right along side with me, especially if you took English 101 last semester. Don't get me wrong, I understand how doing these each week builds our writing skills, builds adequate research techniques, etc, but lately there are weeks that I just don't feel like it and I am willing to let my grade suffer. It's sad, because I have a 3.85 GPA, but I think I cooked myself from taking these classes back to back. Could we have a vote?

Does anyone remember their high school English class? I do, and I remember having to write a paper in English on the last day of school and the topic was "Why?". There were no criteria, no page length requirements and you could leave class after you were done. I was out of there in 2 minutes after pondering and collecting my thoughts on the topic. I will tell you at the end of this what I wrote on that piece of paper, but I got an "A" on it. Even in high school, I was burned out. My parents got divorced when I was 7, and my mom never really emphasized school, so teh pressure to do good wasn't a thought. I figured that since we were poor growing up and with 7 kids my mom couldn't afford college, I would just work fast food and live a meager life. But I was a straight "A" kid, honor roll, attended a gifted program in sixth grade, but I didn't find school challenging. I was bored with it. I took all honors classes in high school and then I realized that I didn't want to be "that nerdy kid", so I started to only put forth the necessary effort to secure an "A", and Professor Chism can even validate that even I did it last semester..Once I calculated that without doing any additional work, I would still have an "A", I quit, I threw in the towel. I know I shouldn't do that, but I have always done it. It's sad and you want to know why?? it's....

Because. That is exactly why.