Ordinary As They Come

OH I have no doubt that all those things are real. I have no false assumptions that anything that has happened to Jennifer has been staged. She isn't a little girl that is vying for attention and will do anything or say anything to get it. I just don't understand the psychological disconnect that allows women like her to rationalize. Nor do I think they should be held without compassion.

Personally, I think they should be treated like addicts. Continually doing something that is obviously unhealthy is addictive behavior, and she MUST be getting something out of it.

Like I said before, there are very few women that I've known who have been in abusive relationships. But I've HAVE seen them. I've seen a black eye, welts around the wrist. I've seen all the verbally abusive messages erased from a blackberry, I've seen cell phones stolen and cars that suddenly get themselves 'broken down.' SO I know those types of men exist. And while I don't pretend to understand their motivation for being total pricks, I cannot FATHOM the motivation of the women who stay with them.

One of Laura's friends used to be married to a man like this. She is a beautiful, funny, caring woman, and while she was married she was simply not allowed to leave her house. Her husband would disable her car engine to make sure she would never go out. He didn't want other men to see her.

As far as Jennifer goes, I know her. Not well, but enough to know she's not stupid. I am a very smart man, but I still find myself doing stupid things from time to time. Repeatedly. And my self introspective usually leads to the question, "WHY are you so DUMB?!" Asking the mirror.

The only one that can really help her, is her.

Jim,

I come from an old-fashioned home. My grandfather's house was a good place to grow up if you wanted to learn a more dated set of values. Dated, but not OUT-dated. Among these is an intense respect for women. I cannot stand wife-beaters and the idea of laying hands on a woman in the way sickens me.

I have only been exposed to a very few men who habitually hit women. This is probably a good thing, because I wouldn't want to spend so much of my time fighting.

I have to confess, though, that I do not understand the compulsion. The compulsion that brings women back to any relationship that is clearly unhealthy. And you cannot get much more unhealthy than being physically abused. I have never been able to understand the psychological disconnect that gives women the idea that anything less than what they deserve is a desirable situation. And everyone deserves to be happy. to find the person that makes them jump up and down with excitement at the prospect of them getting home from work.

Some women either think it's normal, think it's what they deserve, hate themselves, or are so scared of giving up the good times they DO have with that person that they rationalize the beatings. They think a warm body is better than no body at all.

They are wrong.

I also see things in my daughter that I am afraid of. She is a trauma junkie. It's hard to know, and we are doing everything we can to try and raise her self esteem to the point when she cares about herself enough. She sees situations and cultivates them to keep herself a victim and thrives on the sympathy and attention she receives as a result. We are able to recognize this behavior and try to eliminate it, but it isn't easy. For her or for us.

I see this same kind of attitude in the few women I know of who have been abused. They hate the idea of being out of control but gravitate to vices and aspects of life that remove control from them. And the attention and sympathy and embraces they subsist on are the bright spots in their lives. The problem with that is they cannot get to those bright spots without first being traumatized.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm pompous. But you can see it, if you would look.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! You're killing me. KILLING me. first, a short commentary on the events of Tuesday:


I did not comment yesterday on the events that transpired during the election. It was simply too hard for me to get out of bed.

Today… I wear black.

I mourn for the impending death of the U.S. military might.
I mourn for the ultimate destruction of our economy through socialization.
I mourn for the elimination of the free market system in the health care industry.
I mourn for the death of the ideal that mediocrity is NOT ok, and the slow elimination of what is left of the American work ethic.

My only solace is that on January 21st, I can go ahead and quit my job, live off the public cash, get my house paid for, my food, my cable bill, and gas for my car. And the only thing I will have to do is abandon any sense of dignity that I have and teach my children that it’s better to receive than to give. That it is more prosperous to NOT care about developing yourself, your skills, or your mind; than it is to live like a sloth and let other people who are “foolish” enough to work hard take care of you.

I can’t wait.

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OK, now that I'm done with that... Jim....
Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim...

Why you tryin' to kill me?

First, we have an oil surplus at this point. Surplus. So drilling locations do not have any immediate impact on ANYTHING. That statement about drilling locations was made for the long term. Domestic dependency on oil is exactly what we need to reduce the overall costs.

There are about a hundred different factors for why we are paying low at the pump now. Not the least of which was the election. Look back over the last 20 years... gas prices ALWAYS drop around election time.

As far as the profit that Exxon is making... so what? They are making the greatest amount of profit that the market will absorb. THAT is not only the duty, but the flipping DREAM of any business. Gas companies do not prey on people the way cigarette companies do. They are not selling a vice. They are producing and selling a necessity. Are you ranting because you're JEALOUS of it? Or because they are good at it? They don't drive the prices up... they don't have to. As you stated, the companies themselves don't have that much to do with price setting. It is based on commodities speculation.

If you're THAT upset with how much money they are making, ask yourself, "would I like to own an oil company?" You're damn right you would.

Get angry with how little of a percentage they are donating to charity. Get angry with how little of a percentage they are using to set up scholarship programs or medical research. But for crying out loud, don't get mad becuase they are really good at what they do. That is the ESSENCE of the free market system. A system that took a big hit on Tuesday with the election of a completely unknown, woefully underqualified man who is pointing us in a direction that will destroy the Capitalist economy that VALUES people and companies who are good at what they do.

T. Boone Pickens' first name is Thomas.

God may love us, but wasps, mosquitoes and bees were created by Hillary Clinton.

Yes, size matters. Don't be stupid.

Sugar Daddies and Sugar babies can be found at amusement parks and museum gift shops. But they are the same ones that were manufactured when you were a kid.

I LOVE those marshmallow Circus Peanuts.

So many things to respond to and/or argue with. I'm going to respond to this on my own blog, my comment would be too long.

Dork.

I wrote a little about this over on my page. Because I'm cool.

The only reason you like this one better is that you can't see you face. For crying out loud, I could be hugging a telephone pole in this photo. What is it about? Plausible deniability?

I like the photos that actually show your face.

I think woman have an easier time with it because they are trained in that way of thinking since they first develop breasts. Women have to regularly go in for breast exams, and doing so requires that they think about the possibility of the exam turning out badly. Men don't really have to start with their ass exams until they get a bit older or have a history of ass cancer in their family. As a result women have about 30 additional years to get used to the idea of their own mortality. As a rule, men do not.

Now I had to when I was about 29, and I didn't like it then. But women must have to go through that 10-12 years earlier than I did.

BTW, I am going to the main street Sunday night for a brew. You and Mary should come on by if you're in town. We can go over this in more detail.

Bite my crank.

But alternative energy sources aren't necessary, remember? There isn't any oil shortage. So where should the resources be pointed? At finding a mythic new energy source that is cheap, reliable, and abundant? Or at trying to reduce the cost of the energy source that we have in hand?

I've been in the factories, I've seen the drawing boards first hand. Electric cars and alternative energy sources do not come close to the internal combustion engine. Although I've heard it called obsolete more times than I can count, just because it's old doesn't mean it doesn't work. You can throw as many millions as you want into that direction, all you will get is a more efficient way to store and release the electricity, not a measurably more powerful vehicle. Human beings are party animals. They like driving fast and they like feeling the engine rev under their feet when they hit the gas. Electric cars cannot duplicate that. Or you could be talking about some other as yet unknown type of fuel or energy. One that could drive an engine harder/faster/better/cleaner. If so, it isn't up to automotive companies to find that. Their job isn't to put themselves out of business. And if people expect that, their lives will be filled with misery and pain. I call those people democrats.

I know what I would do with 120 billion. I'd buy two islands. One to rule over, and another to banish people to.

I think anything with 9 zeroes behind it is getting into excess. And whether that company uses those profits to try and make MORE profits or they use them as charitable donations, they should ust them for whatever they want. The oil/gas business is unique in how it is actually delivered to consumers. It is unique from all other commodities and consumer items.

There is most definitely collusion between oil companies, but not likely as much as you would think.

Also, I don't think domestic drilling will DIRECTLY lower oil prices. I think the point of that exercise is to be less and less dependant on countries that we do not control. If a country that produces even 3 percent of our oil can dictate a 20 cent per gallon rise at the pump (and they can) then I think we SHOULD be more self sufficient in that area. It isn't being thought of as a solution to ease a growing demand, it's a method to have more control. And the price is NEVER going to go back down. We will never see 1.00 per gallon prices again. But if doing that will raise prices at a slower rate, I'm al for it.

I think this critical mass that economists are talking about is a farce, also. that's the theory that sooner or later people will not be able to afford driving cars. Which will eventually trickle down through the auto industry and kill off our entire economy. Well they raised cigarette prices 250% over the last 3 years, and people are still happily smoking away. It doesn't really matter if the price jumps all the way up to ten dollars. People need to drive, and they are going to find a way to do it.

Now I do not pretend to know exactly how gasoline prices are set; but as I understand it, prices at the pump are the last in a long line of price hikes, manufacturers, refineries, and distributors that actually begin with the price of crude oil per barrel. A price which topped 100 dollars for the first time in history way back in January, and now sits at around 135 dollars per barrel. That's a 35% jump in just under 6 months. And to anyone who may be doing some math in their head, that's just about the exact percentage that pump prices have risen in the same timeframe.

The reasons for this price jump have nothing to do with supply and demand. These prices work just like stock prices do. They go up or down based on the general feeling across the globe of how much oil we THINK we will need, and how much we THINK we will have. And this starting point is the driving force behind what we end up paying at Mobil or Sunoco.

I actually agree with the republicans here. Giving 17 billion back to the governement will not likely reduce gasoline prices, because it will not be reducing the price of crude oil per barrel. What it WILL do is cut into the profits of one of the largest oil companies on the planet, and since they don't like that, they will try to recoup the loss. (Although not technically a loss, less profit than they COULD have made is the same thing to them) The only way to do that is to raise pump prices again.

And you mention Republicans here, although do not directly say that they are the cause for the high prices, I just find the Democrats position a little strange.

For months on end I have been getting hit over the head with a hammer labeled 'natural resources' whenever I bring this subject up. And most environmentalists and democrats I talk about it with say the same thing, that we have an impending oil shortage, we are using up our natural resources, killing the planet, yadda yadda yadda. So the government comes out with a study, or the experts say that there is in fact NO oil shortage, and immediately their tune changes to support that idea, and they now point at high gas prices. That was the main reason for the demand to explore alternate fuel sources, including the hybrids that thousands of smug democrats are zipping around in nowadays. Now, there IS no oil shortage, so lets find the next best thing to blame on republicans.

In January of this year, crude oil hit 99.64 per barrel, a record. The reason for the 3 dollar jump was because of political unrest in Nigeria and the assasination of Benazir Bhutto. Although these events NEVER impacted oil flow out of the country, it made world economists believe there was a possibility that Nigeria's oil production would suffer, so the price per barrel jumped immediately. And when I say world econmists, I mean WORLD. As in, NOT men or women sitting on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

this is making me believe that everything said over the last ten years, hybrids, electric cars, economists beliefs, it was all window dressing. Just another thing that is wrong with the WORLD that democrats can compain about and republicans try to look at practically.

If taxing the oil companies through the roof would lower gas prices, I would line up happily behind everyone else who commented here. It just won't. That's not how companies work. Once they grow to a new level, their objective is more growth. They care about the amount of profit, but what they care about more is that it is at least 5% more than the same quarter last year.

That's because I am great. So great work follows, naturally.

I loved your rendition of Grandpa.