Campaigning 181 million dollars on just Ohio is a little excessive. Couldn’t that money be put toward a less self-gratifying cause? I know a few college students who wouldn’t mind a grant, or scientific research that could use some extra money, or several homeowners who wouldn’t mind some relief. The system needs to change.

Where there is excessive behavior plus astronomical finances, there is inevitable con-artists and public manipulators who have one agenda-themselves. This exploitation of the public has happened throughout time. Like Rome, like the Catholic Church, like any large government, the system has just gotten to that point where Washington’s bloated power grows greed and dishonesty which is now trying to eat its own tail. These political vultures can’t help themselves. They’re drawn to it.

Seeing these people for who they are is what is so difficult for us because they are the people we had voted for, and because of our political allegiances, we see these low life vultures through rose colored glasses. Money and power breeds corruption, so I say, take the money away.

Did you know the average Congressman, Senator, and Representative makes $174,000 a year. Leaders of these houses make roughly $193,400 a year.
In comparison, at Delta, American, United and Continental, a pilot's top minimum salary is between $156,000 and $167,000 per year.

So, politicians are making more than the people who are safely flying you and your family in a metal tube, with a motor, and 24,000 gallons of jet fuel, to some holiday destination. Not to mention the safety of the millions of people they fly over. Politicians make more than airline captains? Really?

During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin considered proposing that elected government officials not be paid for their service. Other Founding Fathers, however, decided otherwise. From 1789 to 1855, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session, except for a period from December 1815 to March 1817, when they received $1,500 a year. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1855, when they were paid $3,000 per year.

It’s unbelievable that they currently write their own pay check. Are they worth the money they earn? No. Unequivocally, no. Earning that much means that they are special. That they, like airline pilots, can do what no one else can do, better. If that ain’t bull crap, I don’t know what is. I say politicians should all earn minimum wage. Period. That’ll weed out the true civil servants. The people who truly care about the people they represent. I know I'm not the first to come up with this, but I sure wish it would happen. And hey, with that kind of across the board pay cut, we could maybe actually put a tiny dent in the deficit. I suppose if the government goes broke, then the political types will have no choice but to be laid off. One can only hope.

The concept of America is good. The current system just leaves the door wide open for dishonest, money hungry individuals. And wow, there needs to be a cap on campaign spending. How about for every dollar they spend on their campaign, they must give a dollar away to charity?

(Though technically, Jesus was theorized by theologian scholars to be born in September.) I actually feel sorry for those of the Wiccan religion, because even thousands of years later, people still associate satanism with witchcraft.

If you didn't know, the christian religion created the demonetization of the Pagan religion so they could be top dog in Europe and Africa. Plain and simple. It was money and power to be apart of the Catholic faith back then. Satanism is a concept of Christianity, and Witchcraft has nothing to do with Satanism. Witchcraft is the name that was used by the Christian Church to stigmatize the followers of "The Old Ways". Even under Christian persecution, the people continued to worship their Gods and Goddesses.  Many were forced to masquerade under the cover of Catholicism. Older religions often dominated in the more remote regions tended to localize themselves, or were kept within a family.  In these families, the traditions of the religion were passed down from generation to the next. To this day some people still believe what the Catholic religion did is the equivalent of the Nazi Genocide of the Jews.

Most people who follow these pagan nature traditions do not refer to themselves as practicing witches. Many in Europe refer to themselves as Heathens. However, using the term "witchcraft" is an easy way for the fundamentalist Church to collectively demonize so called pagan religious beliefs and the people who follow them.
The Church tried to turn Pan, one of the Wiccan Gods, (the goat like, two hoofed creature, that played a flute) into the actual Satan. I say tried, but they were successful. Though before, the depiction of Satan was more man looking figure.
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumb-screws, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.
Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.
~Mark Twain~

Let me be real clear, I am not Wiccan, I am not a witch, but I am against anyone trying to force anyone to believe that their belief is the only right way to have faith. That alone, should throw up a big red flag.
So all you super religious types, let your dang kids dress-up for Halloween and get a nice sugar buzz.
And don't believe everything your told, most of it is out of date propaganda.

It's that time of year when campaigning clogs the airways to an annoying level.
What always made me leery about the way voting takes place in the USA is the Electoral College. I understand the 12th Amendment was created by farmers in Sept 6, 1787, so that the small towns in BFE would have an equal say in who runs this country. But it is not a very democratic method for our current society. Even now farmers way out in BFE have cell phones and the internet.
Critics like myself argue that the Electoral College is inherently undemocratic and gives swing states disproportionate influence in electing the President and Vice President. It violates the principle of political equality, since presidential elections are not decided by the one-person one-vote principle. A result of the present functionality of the Electoral College is that the national popular vote bears no legal or factual significance on determining the outcome of the election. Since the national popular vote is irrelevant, both voters and candidates are assumed to base their campaign strategies around the existence of the Electoral College; any close race has candidates campaigning to maximize electoral votes by capturing coveted swing states, not to maximize national popular vote totals.

George C. Edwards, 2011 has stated:
The United States is the only country that elects a politically powerful president via an electoral college and the only one in which a candidate can become president without having obtained the highest number of votes in the sole or final round of popular voting.
&
The electoral college does not provide a straightforward process for selecting the president. Instead, it can be extraordinarily complex and has the potential to undo the people's will at many points in the long journey from the selection of electors to counting their votes in Congress.

Except in closely fought swing states, voter turnout is largely insignificant due to entrenched political party domination in most states. The Electoral College decreases the advantage a political party or campaign might gain for encouraging voters to turn out, except in those swing states. If the presidential election were decided by a national popular vote, in contrast, campaigns and parties would have a strong incentive to work to increase turnout everywhere. Individuals would similarly have a stronger incentive to persuade their friends and neighbors to turn out to vote. The differences in turnout between swing states and non-swing states under the current electoral college system suggest that replacing the Electoral College with direct election by popular vote would likely increase turnout and participation significantly.

Voting should be based on the direct popular vote of the people. Not by some shady elected “electoral” group of people who can be fined an obnoxious amount (in some states) for not voting a way they had promised. Although electors are not required by federal law to honor a pledge, in the overwhelming majority of cases they vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged. But no, the Electoral College can somehow supersede Us, the vote of the people. 

4 times in our history the Electoral College superseded Our vote:

• 1824: John Quincy Adams, received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.

• 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden.
• 1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65.
• In 2000, Al Gore received 50,992,335 votes nationwide and George W. Bush received 50,455,156 votes. After Bush was awarded the state of Florida, he had a total of 271 electoral votes, which beat Gore's 266 electoral votes.

Another thing I can't stand is the lobbyist. That activity needs to be made illegal. But that's another blog.

Things to read:
Electoral College
How Stuff Works
The Electoral College Controversy article

Mirror, mirrror on the wall, who's the fairest of--Wait! Who the hell is that?

Here's a weird trick. Find a mirror, dim the lights until you can just barely make-out your features, un-focus your eyes, and watch. Soon an image that is not you, will reflect in the mirror.
I see an old old lady that is absolutely NOT me!
Creepy weird!