Tag Archives: food

The world is messed up!

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My daughters boyfriend spent a week in jail. He was suppose to be in there for three days because he couldn’t pay a fine. He almost had to spend a month in jail. FOR A FINE! What kind of messed up country do we have that we put people in jail for being unable to pay a fine, and not only that but we keep them there for longer then we were suppose to, because we can.

It’s all about the money. Each person in a jail is money. Tax money that goes to the jail to house, cloth and feed them. Do you know what they are eating? Can’s of food marked “NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.” I was incredulous about that so looked it up. Apparently it is common practice for jails to get food that is suppose to be used for animals, or is expired, sometimes with worms in it, to save the jail money. Because money.

And this is not the first person I’ve known to have this happen to them. A friend of mine served three months on a one month sentence. After serving a month he was told “this month doesn’t count toward your service because it’s at the wrong jail.” The wrong jail? WTF! It’s a jail? How is it the WRONG JAIL!? Lets not even get into the fact that my friend was serving for a domestic abuse when in fact his ex is the one that is stalking, beating, and screaming at him. (I’ve seen her do it.) He’s homeless now and she calls up anyone willing to help him and tries to spread more lies about him being on meth (he’s on probation and being tested, so no meth) and basically making life miserable for everyone. But he goes to jail.

Screen-Shot-2012-10-15-at-10.25.43-AMWe call this a justice system? Where is the justice? And now that pot is no longer a jailable offence they are finding other excuses, because we need to keep the jails full, right? WHY? Why are we paying our tax dollars to jail 2.2 million people, and put another 4.8 million on probation. That’s SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE in the USA that are under “correctional supervision”. Why? For money. More then TRIPLE per capita of any other country.

Prison labor is the only form of slavery still allowed in the USA. Prisoners who do not perform the work they are “asked” to do can be sanctioned with less food, longer sentence, or worse treatment. Prisoners can work in call centers, making books for the blind, park benches and Victoria Secret lingerie. They often do this work for cents on the dollar, because they are prisoners not people.

We say we are “the nation of the free”. I don’t really see it anymore.

(More info here)

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Progress and Setbacks

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I wrote the other day about my writing progress so today I thought I’d write about the other thing that’s been a big a big concern in my life. My health.

Again, feel free to skip this if you’re not interested.

With the coming of the new year I got something that I hadn’t had in about ten years. Health insurance. Thank you Obamacare, and mainly the state of Washington for doing such a great job of implementing it. I thought since I had this marvelous thing I’d take the opportunity to do what I hadn’t done in almost a decade. I went to the doctor.

Well, first I tried to go to the dentist. That was a pain in the ass and I still haven’t gotten my cavities filled, nor am I likely to for several more months because of the restrictions on dental care via my state health insurance, and the fact that it’s bloody expensive just to get x-rays, let alone treatment, for teeth without insurance.

But I was talking about the other Doctor. The one who sticks you with needles, takes your blood, and runs you through a ringer to see how fit (or unfit) you are.

All the tests came back and I was basically told “eat better and exercise or you’re going to get diabetes, and/or a heart problem.)

I’m 37. I’m too young to have a heart problem. And the thing is I know diabetes runs in my family, and that I was already having issues with my blood sugars. When you get shaky and faint because of certain things you eat you tend to know these things. I also knew my heart wasn’t as strong as it should be. I have a 80 beats per min heart rate when I’m resting, and if I exercise it gets up to 190-200. That’s not good.

Knowing it, and seeing it in black and white might be two different things. Or it could have been the energy drink I had the other day that made me start shaking. Or the dizzy spells that happen when I don’t eat right. Either way, I think it was the kick in my pants I needed to finally do something about it, like seeing the graphs for my writing. I’m not sure. I just know I don’t want to die of a heart attack when I’m 45 because I’m a lazy girl who likes doughnuts and mac n cheese.

So I’ve been exercising, and I’ve been sitting here looking at the candy bar my children eating wishing I could eat it and knowing I shouldn’t. Yay self control!

Eating right isn’t that difficult. I love fruits and veggies. Not big on meat. No problem giving up pasta either.

It’s the exercise. I hate running on treadmills, and using ellipticals. I hate feeling my heart trying to burst. I hate getting hot and sweaty and just gross. I really hate feeling like I’m wasting time in a gym when I could have been writing, or playing a game, or going to a movie.

The only exercise I’ve liked at all was belly dancing, and then it’s mostly my self esteem that gets in the way.

So, for now I’m just trying to get out, on my feet, and doing something more often so that I can try and get a little healthier. Maybe some day I’ll find something physical I enjoy. Till then… still going to do it. It’s better then shooting a needle full of insulin in myself every day.

Absolon, life like? (Or- Michigan is fucking NUTS!)

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absolonsmI posted the second chapter of “Absolon” today.

It’s kind of freaky, actually. I wrote it, and posted it. In this chapter we start to see what happened to the world after WW3, and what people are dealing with in their daily lives.

One part of it, I think I might spoil a little, because I was shocked to learn it wasn’t as inconceivable as I thought it might be.

In Michigan they just passed a law that requires community service (that is, they will have people work for free) in order to get basic health care and food stamps, and/or unemployment.

Sounds kind of straight forward, right? Even a little intuitive when you think about it. They get “free money from the state” so lets have them work for it.

Now lets look a little deeper.

Everyone who works pays into the system. We pay taxes, social security, and medicaid. We pay these things so that when we are down and out, out of a job, and looking for a new one, then we have a little security to fall back. We also get roads, military, politicians, and all sorts of other things out of the deal. Not all of which we agree with, but we pay our taxes, elect our officials and hope things work out.

Second, there is a system for unemployment for a reason. Everyone who works pays into it. And when we are out of work we take from it. That is how it has worked for a very long time. It gives everyone a chance to look for a new job, get well (if it was a medical reason) or just take a breather and recover for a bit before jumping back into the rat race.

Not everyone will get a chance to take advantage of unemployment, but shouldn’t we be grateful? Unemployment only pays a small percentage of what you were making before hand. Not enough to pay your bills usually. Who the heck wants to be on unemployment? Most people want to get back to work as soon as possible.

Which brings us to another problem in this system…. Work.

If you have a bunch of people on unemployment and food stamps working for the city for free, then what happens to the people who did those jobs before the city started getting free “community service”? Do they get laid off? Fired? Restructured? Retrained?

Or do you throw them back on the unemployment lines so they have to come back and do the job they were doing before, only this time for free.

Even if you figure that the people working this community service are doing it for “pay” in the form of unemployment and food stamps, how can you guarantee that they are being paid a decent wage for that time? How do you measure that? How do they still have time to go find a “real” job?

Why not just create new jobs and hire them?

Grumble, grumble, grumble….

Anyway, there is a lot more to this argument. A lot of fall out that could happen if it passes, and sticks.