Draft Bill

 There's a Alabama draft bill circulating around now....mandating a high school class be taught on finance.  Topics?

- The types of bank accounts available and how to open and manage their own account

= How to balance a checking account

= How to manage credit cards and debt

- How to evaluate different types of loans

- The types of insurance policies

- How taxes work

= How to calculate interest rates

= Types of contracts

= Types of saving and investment tools

Odds of passing?  Unknown.

Necessity?  If you went to most 18-year old kids....they have no idea how local, state and federal taxes work.  If you asked even 25-year olds.....on loans....they'd have little to no knowledge.

I'd even include a 30-minute session on college degree debt and the true value of a degree versus debt obligation.  

The Phrase 'I Identify As'?

 I just seem to see a lot of chatter that starts off 'I identify as', rather than saying 'I'm such-and-such'.  It's just an odd speech pattern....like some 3rd grade kid trying to get an intellectual point across to his teacher.

Could you revert or revolve around sixteen different identities?  It's possible.  There's no real rules to this game.

Could you just show up at some school....claiming to identify as 12 years old (while really 44 years old)?  You could try.....so far....no one has done that successfully.

Could just having a mental illness....be an identity?  Well....yeah, you could make that case.  Mental illness is 'hip' these days, if you haven't paid attention.

Could mental illness prevent you from identifying as something?  That's possible as well.

If twelve people support you in this 'I-identify-as' situation, an twelve people go against your 'I-identify-as' situation....are you in a make-or-break situation?

If you chose to identify as a woman (while a guy), and folks told you that you were the ugliest woman on Earth....would that invalidate your 'I-identify-as' situation?  

If I have no desire to know you...doesn't this end the 'I-identify-as' situation between you and me?

The whole discussion almost seems designed like some Bible enthusiast hyping up Revelations, and getting the bulk of people confused to the ninth degree. 

Five Observations

 1.  It's just weird....normal regular women....are drawn to political antics that essentially replace them with men.  And there's no booze, drugs, or religion involved.  

2.  I would imagine....at least once a day now....I hear the term 'Constitutional crisis'.  I'm not sure if people grasp the meaning or the serious nature of suggesting this.

3.  I watched some discussion between Jon Stewart and the Defense Secretary....centered on why military people are paid such a minor sum of money, and require food stamps.  

Basically, this goes back to a 18 or 19 year old person....who has a dependent.  Basic pay....is meant for a junior enlisted guy/gal to live in the barracks....eat chow-hall food, and NOT be attached to dependents.  

4.  The Nashville shooter manifesto public yet?  No.  

Either it's a thousand-pages long, or it's got some delicate topic that you can't discuss in public.  My bet?  The shooter was having an emotional breakdown over several months, and regressing back to their original state of gender.  

5.  Ford says shortly, it'll just drop AM on their new car radios.  End of the world?  I would imagine 99-percent of people only listen to FM today.

Humble View of the Tennessee Events of the Past Two Weeks

 First, for those who aren't really aware of the political landscape of Tennessee......it's a remarkably conservative state.  Even if you claim Democratic status....there's probably thirty issues where you lean more to the right of the spectrum, than the left.  

I would add....the state is bundled-up and probably has a minimum of three divisions (I'd put Memphis in a region by itself....as well as the Nashville-circle).  

Second, if I were to guess on AR ownership per 100,000 residents (the statistic doesn't exist officially)....I'd say the state ranks near the top three on AR-ownership.  I'd also suggest that from LE folks in the state....it wouldn't shock me if nine out of ten had ownership of a AR rifle.  

Third, on the events at the state-house?  There are a list of rules, expectations and expectations of order.  All fifty states have such rules.  These three characters who violated the rules?  Either they never read the material and just thought no one would dare kick them out.  

Fourth, large crowds showing up to demonstrate?  So far, from the images I've seen (up to Thursday afternoon)....none of the crowds have been over 1,500 people.  For a NCAA basketball championship game....you get ten times that number in Knoxville.  

Fifth, trying to make a black 'event' out of the state-house business?  Maybe, but the last time I checked on Hispanics in the state....they were near 10-percent of the population...compared against 16-percent for Blacks. In another decade?  I would imagine Hispanics will be the number one minority in the state.

Six, all of this chatter, disruption, and theatrics.....going back to a mentally unstable Trans-person?  Yeah, and when you sit in a room of just working class Tennessee people....they simply shake their heads....this has become a reality TV show with a bit of drama attached.

Seventh, this speech given by Justin Jones (one of the those expelled)?  It's an odd speech with an accent that seems more theatrical than actual.  

Eighth, the bull-horn use in the assembly?  Strictly 4th-grade type behavior.  

Ninth, the comment by Justin Pearson (one of the expelled legislative folks) saying that Jesus was crucified for the LGTBQ community?  

For the over-40 black community....that probably triggered them to back away and mute Pearson from this point on.

Final view?  Lets be honest as tens of thousands of Californians left their state, and resettled in Tennessee....they brought different aspects of their life with them.  Tennessee now has to deal with this new reality.  

The 'Fad' Question

 I was reading a social commentary today, and it just stuck to my mind.  Their comment was: "The majority of humans seem mentally retarded. Has this always been the case, or is it newish?"

First, I thought the term 'retarded' was probably wrong.  You could have used 'witless', 'irrational', 'foolish', 'absurd', or 'wacky' instead.

Second, I probably observed this trend around 2000 to 2005, and at that point....it was a couple of junior airmen (Air Force period) who were talking over their medication rates.  They were four 'ladies'.....all in the 19 to 24 year old age group, and on some type of SSRI-type drug (prozac-like).  One was a 'tiny' gal....maybe 100 pounds max, and the AF doctors were prescribing to her....the maximum amount for her weight.  I'll just describe her as unable to fully concentrate, with 50-percent of her work effort mostly in a daze.  All four had some behavior-issue and if you asked me to hand out pistols for defense....I would refuse to hand any of them a weapon.

Third, by 2010, I would have suggested that around 10-percent of society were in some form of irrational behavior.  Some were young....some were in their forties....some were unable to really concentrate or react in a normal way.

Where we stand in 2023?  I would probably suggest in a typical day (from home-to-work-and-back-to-home), you probably encounter five to ten people who are not rational.  It might be in a bar, or at McDonalds, or at work, or just hanging around Wal-Mart.  

I watched a video last week of some 8-year old kid who'd finally had some kind of break-down at Wal-Mart, and fully engaged into whooping up on his mother (public setting).  Don't know if the kid was drugged-up....but it was the type of confrontation that going to endanger someone (either the kid or the woman).

Is it a fad?  I'm not sure about the use of the word, and it fitting for the events.

What bothers me here....what happens in a decade....say 2033?  Would you have to carry a baseball bat with you into Wal-Mart?  Would you have twelve people a day killed in town....because of the irrational physical threat?  Would ministers be suggesting demon-possession as part of the trend?  

Why NPR Can't Give Up Government Funding?

 Well....here's the simple truth.  Their budget each year....from the federal government side....amounts to about half-a-percent to one-percent of their budget.  On this alone....they could give it entirely up.

But here's two odd things which are never discussed.  First, around 2-to-3 percent of the remaining budget comes from state budgets and local city budgets.  If the fed guys left the table, and then a dozen states realized that they could also leave the table....then you'd have two percent minimum missing from the budget.

Second...through various other fund vehicles....state public channels are funded by the federal machine and the states.  

For example, from the state of Tennessee....there are 11 public radio stations.

For example, from the state of Kentucky, there are 12 public radio stations.

NPR does a word game where they make it think that it's really not that much that comes from the federal government.  On these state contributions....it's possible that some or even half of their budget to the local stations....really come from a grant or two....from the federal government.

If the funding was drastically cut?  You'd have people all bothered that their favorite network was cut, but it wouldn't really be the end of the world....because NPR is mostly news, and you get everything from your commercial networks.  It'd be different if NPR was literature, poetry, jazz or classical music (what they started out as, you know).

Ten Things I Wonder About

 1.  From the school shooting in Nashville....I wonder if the police had taken the shooter alive (wounded)....if a murder case could be developed, or if the court system would render the person incompetent and sent off to a mental facility for the remainder of their life?

2.  I wonder, if the Democrats had just starved off the court stuff on Trump....if political donations would have been marginal and downsized his campaign?

3.  I wonder, from each time a serious journalist tries to interview Stormy Daniels....if the audience view immediately revolves around to SEX?

4.  I wonder if Joe Biden could run in 2024, and announce he was 'gender-fluid'.....would it hype his campaign and help for re-election?

Then I wonder....would Joe understand the term 'gender-fluid' or think it has something to do with sex oil?

5.  I wonder if anyone can prove or disprove that a fair amount of PAC money for politicians today....come from overseas?

6.  I wonder if this new time-limit business in professional baseball is going to permanently ruin the game?

7.  I wonder if a majority of people learned their bank was in a 'bad' way....would they rush down to remove their life savings, and trigger a total collapse of the banking sector?

8.  If your neighbor came over and said he was abducted last night by aliens....would you pause and give him an hour of your time, or pretty much feel he was suffering a mental breakdown?

Then I wonder if you asked the neighbor about alien women, and if they had any special features?

9.  I wonder if we mandated mental competency tests to own a gun.....wouldn't you have to mandate the same tests for driver's licenses, credit cards, getting married, and voting?  And then with the failed applicants....who were deemed mentally incompetent....what would you do with them?

10.  I wonder....if we could create a brain-washing technique to convince everyone to become Klingon warriors....would they all rush out to get plastic surgery, and buy up $1,500 Klingon swords?