Policy and Change

     With another school shooting comes the endless barrage of my leftist friends and family trying to find any meme or idea that might make gun control a reality.  But when my leftist friends and family say “gun control”, what they really mean is government only gun ownership.  To that end, I give you “We don’t need thoughts and prayers, we need policy and change”.   I have the policy and change answer- school vouchers.

     When was the last mass shooting at a private and/or parochial school?  Never?  Sounds about right.  Why would that be?  Better security?  Armed staff?  No.  Teachers that give a crap.  You see, private school teachers meet all the same requirements that public school teachers do, without that pesky union mentality.  Think about it.  The same mentality that leftists hate in police officers (the thin blue line) exists within public teachers unions also.  Unity and protection of each other first. 

      The difference this makes is that private school teachers know that their job isn’t protected unless they are actually worthwhile employees.  But they are also well compensated, based on merit. and if they don’t really have it in them, they won’t teach long.  Add to it the fact that teaching policies in private schools benefit the children, not the teachers, and you have a recipe for good children.  Throw in a couple of strict disciplinarian nuns and you have a very safe school.  But it’s not just the discipline.  One kid in a class of 40 kids, who already is used to being ignored at home or among others kids, will hide in plain sight and be ignored by the overworked, underpaid teacher, who has probably had more diversity classes than math classes.

     In private schools there’s connection.  Smaller classes make the kids connected to the teacher.  Private schools engage with the parents and connect to them, which gets the parents to connect with the kids.  Discipline and respect connect the kids to each other.  When you’re connected to things, you don’t go to those dark places.  You also don’t feel the need to seek out a way to let the world know you exist when you already know there are people who do, and who care.

     So what leftists don’t understand is that the best “policy and change” is still to get as many kids as possible being schooled under these conditions.  Not just to make happy children who don’t shoot up their school, but to make happy children, period.  That benefits everyone.

V.A. hospitals- welcome to single payer

As you can tell I haven't fully gone away.  I'm on vacation from work and have something very near and dear to me to talk about, so



I've been saying on Twitter for almost a year now that the V.A. IS single payer health care, and that it doesn't work well.  Today, I watched Bob Beckel stutter and stammer on The Five, dredging up every old "Gay Republican" scandal he could think of while debating the V.A.'s abysmal performance.  If the Enterprise's deflector array worked as badly as Beckel's....but I digress.

However, when the conversation became "V.A. is single payer, and should be a warning about Obama Care", the sputtering increased, but he stopped the "foot tapping Republican" comments for a second because he thought he had a valid counter point- he reminded everyone that Obamacare isn't single payer and that they were "...comparing apples to oranges".   Well, I'd like to remind Mr. Beckel of this (only one of many times he has suggested this over the last year):



I am now asking Bob Beckel to shut his hole.  You've been shot down, you've lost the argument.  It is time to quit.  But if you don't, we LOVE how much of a buffoon you are, and it helps our cause.  But remember, as soon as they can make Obamacare single payer, they will.  Oh, and by the way, Medicare isn't all that great, either.

Again, it's only apples and oranges right now, Bob. Later, it will be apples and poisoned apples if you get what you've begged for. #TheFive
— Adam Johnson (@awj9009) May 22, 2014

I'm a veteran. The second I could get out of the VA system, I did.  Why?  Because of wait times.  Period. End  of story.  The only time I got right away service was when I broke my elbow, because it was work comp and they had someone they could pass the bill on to.  I don't have all the answers, but I know what doesn't work, and what doesn't work is paying bonuses for improvement without scrutiny of the "improvement" to ensure it's honest.  What doesn't work is giving more money and NOT watching to make sure the money doesn't just go to upgrade their national offices. 

But Bob Beckel contorting himself to provide duck and cover is helping no one.

AJ

Pearl

About 1974 my parents went to Hawaii, including touring the Arizona Memorial.  My gifts from parents returning from an exotic vacation were awesome.  

I was given a reproduced copy of the Honolulu paper's extra edition that said "WAR!" on it.  It got folded and spindled into a small square, but somewhere I have that thing; it's yellowing and wrapped in cellophane.

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At that time, being 8 years old, I also was a member of a scale model club.  It was like a record club except that when you forgot to send your "No Thanks" card back, you got a plastic model each month.  I had built an Apollo Module, Snoopy on his doghouse, cars, boats, motorcycles.  So my parents' second Hawaii gift for me was a large model of the USS Arizona from Revell.  I wish I had that now.  It would be fun to build.  I actually found a picture of the Revell model, but since I was 8, mine didn't look like this.

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The third gift they brought me was the most treasured.  I still have this.  My son was even allowed to use it in school for a book report for History class even though it's a very short book.  It's that well written and detailed.

 

It's "Pearl Harbor Story December 7, 1941" by William T. Rice.  Published in 1971 this was a souvenir book from the gift store at the Arizona Memorial.  I will always treasure this.


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I have no point this week.  It's just that because of these 3 gifts, I have always made sure I remember Pearl Harbor every year.  So, this is year, I'm remembering by sharing a childhood memory.  Hope you like it and will follow me https://twitter.com/awj9009

Capitalism, Choice, and Evil Corporations

Let's talk about those evil corporations that made people work on Thanksgiving, and why Walmart is a front for devil worship.  Okay, I made that up, corporations aren't evil.  They're just misunderstood.

Understand, I've been off work since Wednesday.  I have been asked to come in sometime this weekend and put an office back together after it gets new carpeting, but that doesn't happen most years, and I'm good with it.  Why?  Because it's my job.  I choose to do this line of work, so when I get asked to work, I do it.  I also choose to work this job BECAUSE of time off it affords.

This might be due to the fact that I was Security Police LE in the Air Force, and did private security work for 20 more years after that.  I've worked my way to a job that gives me holidays off.  But here's how:  I worked most holidays for 25 years.  Period.  End of story. If every single private business was forced to close, it would have been worse and maybe even dangerous.  Have you ever had your flashlight die in the middle of a shift only to find out that the spares are dead too?  Have you started to eat your lunch and find out the meat on your sandwich is spoiled?  People have to eat, and not everyone CAN have the day off.  We were always thankful for any store or restaurant that was open.  But imagine if everything was closed.  No flashlight and a 12 hour shift with no dinner could get someone killed.  Also, a baby's fever doesn't go away just because you ran out of Tylenol and the stores are closed.  You could take the baby to the hospital, but the staff is probably hungry because they can't get any food, so they might make mistakes.

Now, suddenly, as part of the left's campaign to destroy Walmart, cities and states are banning businesses from being open on Thanksgiving,  Some are even banning only the chain stores from opening.  That's not about families, that's about destroying capitalism.  I spent a larger part of Tuesday afternoon debating with a CONSERVATIVE tweeter who supported this because it's a State's Rights issue.  His side of the argument was that the community chose it.  

Here's the problem:  when a community "chooses" a rule of law, people who aren't affected by the law get a say.  That's part of a representative government and I understand that, but it has it's problems.  When the city of Lincoln, Nebraska put a smoking ban for restaurants up for vote, by the time it went to voters, it included bars.  People who don't even drink got to vote on this, and it passed.  The argument was that employees had to be exposed to the smoke, and that made it a public health issue.  Most people I knew working in food service or bars did so in order to smoke while working.  Those that didn't smoke tended to work at non-smoking restaurants.  Then the argument from people who voted for it, when asked why they didn't just go to a non-smoking bar, tended to have the same argument "I'm the only non-smoker in my group and my friends won't go to those bars".  Shorter answer:  I'm in the minority, but I'm going to force my will on the majority and make them bend to my will.

So, the argument was out there that the community chose the business blue laws, but my side of the debate was that if the community REALLY chose it, the businesses would be closed without a law because the community wouldn't shop there on Thanksgiving or Black Friday and therefore there would be no profit in it.  But there is profit in it, so obviously, the community on a whole would actually rather shop.  The people who don't shop anyhow voted for this.  

Look at it this way.  Imagine owning a bar that nets $2000 each night every Friday and Saturday night, and only $2000 a week from the other days combined, but because there are Seventh Day Adventists living in the community (let's say 20%), the city passes a law that says you can't be open on Friday night, and you can't open until 9pm on Saturdays.  Would you still believe in doing "what's right for these families"?  Even if you lose over $2000 a week off your $6000 a week income (1/3 of your income)?  What if a major employer told employees they were cutting their pay from $12 an hour to $8 an hour (1/3 of your income).  Do you think the "community" would tolerate that?  There would be minimum wage increase laws introduced THE NEXT DAY.

I have seen memes this weekend saying how many people have been killed or injured in "Black Friday" related incidents.  Nothing else in the meme, but given that it's my friends and family that are super left posting it, it's a good guess where they stand.  There's also a meme of a woman with two carts, a flat screen t.v. in each, and the caption says "bought 2 t.v.s, can't pay rent".  My wife has never gone shopping on Black Friday.  Most people I know don't.  Do you know why?  Because of those 2 memes.  Most people I hang out with have an IQ over 80, and know that it's crazy and sometimes violent, and that you don't buy 2 t.v.s if you have to spend your rent to do it.  CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE.  Not only making personal choices, but accepting the consequences of those choices.  That's true choice.  Living with the consequences of those choices.  If you can choose to reverse course at the slightest inconvenience, it's not choice, it's failure to have courage in your convictions. 

That's what we've come down to.  You can't tell me what to do.  Oh, crap it went south, why wasn't there a law protecting me from that choice.  You can choose to have premarital sex but if you accidentally get pregnant, there are no consequences to that choice because you can terminate the pregnancy on demand.  You can choose to get married to someone who is mean, angry, ditzy, a drinker, whatever.  But when you decide (3 kids later) that you don't like those qualities anymore, you can get a no-fault divorce.  There's no longer a requirement to prove that staying in the marriage is unsafe or that it's irrevocably broken due to infidelity.  I made a bad choice, so I have the right to choose to uproot my kid's life just because "I'm not in love anymore".  Here's some bad news, whiny boy.  You never were.  Would you have gotten married that fast if divorce was illegal?  Probably not.  We make it too easy to flip flop.  And then we wonder why we have politicians that do so.

What have we learned?  Probably nothing, since I'm not a professional writer, but if you take anything from this post, take this-  Capitalism works because of personal choice.  If enough people choose to avoid shopping on Black Friday, businesses will stop doing it.  So if you really want to make a change, don't force your will, lead by example.  Don't camp all night for an Xbox or an Iphone (regardless of the time of year).  And more important, don't rail against capitalism in a Starbucks, on Twitter, using said Iphone.  It's called hypocrisy, just say NO to it.

MY GIRL BILL

For those that missed it, THIS happened:



Yes, it's a bittersweet week for Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld fans.  Bill Schulz has left the show.  I listened to him discussing it with Sherrod Small on Sherrod's podcast called Race Wars.  Sherrod's partner Kurt Metzger is vulgar and a general dick, but the podcast overall is informative on this issue at least.  I've put it below.  Bill's not very forthcoming, but it's what you don't say that says volumes, and I'm pretty sure leaving wasn't his choice. 

 




Of course, the #RedEye Twitterverse weighed in (plus I promised Gwen she would get mentioned)

#Redeye I just hope @BillSchulz is monitoring twitter right now and sees that we're going to miss him.
— GweninAlaska™  (@GweninAlaska) November 22, 2013

I hope @BillSchulz didn't leak information and is in a Russian airport.  #RedEye
— outwest (@tate_wes) November 22, 2013

NO!!!!!! MT @RedEyeAlerts For those asking about @BillSchulz & #RedEye, the announcement was made last night:  http://t.co/l26es1wmf8
— Spark Guy (@SparkyATS) November 23, 2013

Not everybody is crying though

I guess I don't get it. #RedEye is now far more appealing without @BillSchulz ...
— #1 RINO Hater (@MuddleMuddle) November 23, 2013

In the last year, we've seen the end of the Half-Time Report (which still boils blood in my circles), the end of the Pre-Game and Post-Game Reports came next in order to put Andy on the panel.  The studio changed, as did the legs chair position.  I don't mind seeing Jedidiah Bila's other leg, so that's okay.  Now with Bill gone, I can't help thinking that this has been in the works, and that there won't be a 3rd permanent co-host coming in.  This is now the Greg and Andy show, I would guess.

There is a function that Bill provided though that Andy would suck at.  There's only one person in my mind that can replace Bill for the Man In The Street interviews, and that's Joe Machi in character as The Frightened Correspondent.  If you didn't see this, it may be one of the funniest bits ever:



To this end, I am the self appointed leader of the committee to make this happen, and I appear to have support:

@awj9009 Thanks for watching Adam!
— Joe Machi (@joemachi) November 22, 2013

It's a brave new world out there now folks.  We'll miss Bill Schulz, but I'm sure our aim will get better.

The Lighter Side Of My Brain

I thought I'd just have some fun this time with some pictures videos and tweets from the last week that caught my eye.  

I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF

I made this meme on my own.  Idea, design everything was all me.  Came up with this while having a family dinner.

HEY RIOT COPS- NEENER NEENER

Do you have your ACLU Card yet?  I never heard of Macklemore before this, but after watching this, suddenly I've heard more about him.  He comes across like one of those little smart asses that thinks he got over on somebody until they're suddenly punching him in the head.



Do you think an ACLU Card would prevent this from happening?  



Nah, me either.

THEY DON'T FEED US IN HERE

Somehow, every Red Eye w. Greg Gutfeld story that we live tweet about with the #RedEye hashtag seems to turn to food (or drink):

During a story about Green Juice (this episode ran twice this week) Andy Levy mentions that he likes split pea soup.  Greg mentions that Rick Leventhal likes Creme Soda.  Did we talk about the Green Juice?  Nope.

@aggedor_ Creme Soda is better for making floats than Root Beer is.
— Adam Johnson (@awj9009) November 13, 2013

@aggedor_ @awj9009 Especially Faygo Chocolate Creme Soda. (Good luck finding any.)
— David McKenna (@DSMac27) November 13, 2013

This conversation just kept going.  Personally, I had never heard of Faygo, but many others had.

OMG, I was just transported to 1975. RT @DSMac27: @aggedor_ @awj9009 Especially Faygo Chocolate Creme Soda. (Good luck finding any.) #RedEye
— oceanbeachbum (@troposphr) November 13, 2013

Somehow, we got on the topic of raisins.  For 2 days.

 

@KimsInAmerica @Red_Eye_Robot  @aggedor_ @awj9009 NO! He's lying! *No one* likes raisins! #Ick #RaisinBran #RedEye
— Theresa Sickles (@tsickles321) November 10, 2013

@tsickles321 @Red_Eye_Robot @aggedor_ @awj9009 Two scoops of lies! #redeye
— Kim Contrary (@KimsInAmerica) November 10, 2013

@awj9009 @KimsInAmerica @tsickles321 @aggedor_ Humans should eat more raisins. Don't believe the rumor they will make you compliant
— Your Robot Overlord (@Red_Eye_Robot) November 10, 2013

@Red_Eye_Robot _ Yeah! We defy ingesting your compliance-inducing raisins! :p #SoThere @KimsInAmerica @awj9009 @aggedor
— Theresa Sickles (@tsickles321) November 10, 2013

@tsickles321 @KimsInAmerica @awj9009 @aggedor YOU WILL EAT THE RAISINS AND YOU WILL LIKE THEM!
— Your Robot Overlord (@Red_Eye_Robot) November 10, 2013

So remember.  If you eat these
 
Then the only winners are these guys
 

EDIT- FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO

@DSMac27 @KimsInAmerica DC? Them's fighting words. hehehehe.  My first magazine subscription ever was Capt America & Falcon comix in mid 70s
— Adam Johnson (@awj9009) November 14, 2013

  

Don't let the robots win, eat Craisins, not Raisins, and follow me on Twitter @awj9009

Expanding My Horizons

I'd like to start by saying that I'm actually a little funny sometimes, and one day soon, some of these will start making people chuckle.  But first, if I'm actually going to blog more than once, I've got to get some stuff out of my system.  This one is meant to be a cathartic exploration into how I've gotten to the point where I'm actually trying to write a blog.  The answer of course is Twitter, Red Eye w. Greg Gutfeld, and Andrew Breitbart, but that's a simplification.

I was in private security for a long time.  You listen to a lot of radio in private security, and if you're politically savvy you listen to a lot of political talk radio.  I detested Bill Clinton.  I had been an Air Force Security Police Law Enforcement Specialist while Ronald Reagan was President and Commander-In-Chief, and Bill Clinton was no Reagan.

I have participated occasionally in City Council meetings, I have gone to meeting at the Nebraska Republican Party Headquarters, and I've talked to many political figures in Nebraska politics including the one guy that humiliates me more every day for ever voting for him- Chuck Hagel.  

When the internet became common and I had regular access, I had a MySpace page, followed by a Facebook page.  Facebook was a great way to connect with family, and later find people from High School and even the Air Force.  After my father went into a coma, my half-sister (yes, the Progressive) came to NE and we all finally became family like we never had before.  

My dad got better and had another year and a half with us, but my sister was finally family, and Facebook played a part of that since she lives in Kansas.  But she's very political in what I believe to be the wrong direction and she uses Facebook for it, so I don't see her posts but we message each other and I look at her page when I want.  She knows I do this.  It keeps my blood pressure at good levels.  The point of this is that I don't want to do that to other family members, so I seriously limit political posts and memes.  When I haven't, it sometimes has gone bad, like the time I said some out of line and nasty things to my brother in law.

Enter Twitter.  No one I knew had Twitter, but lots of public figures I liked did.  So I tried it.  I was mostly an observer, but would occasionally do a bad joke to a professional comedian.  Then, from watching Red Eye, I discovered Andrew Breitbart and was immediately inspired.  He kind of has that effect on people.  I started following him, and all he would do all evening long is Retweet his haters.  It was awesome.  

I followed just about everyone connected to Red Eye and one night I saw Tweets where Andy Levy hadn't shown up at the bar yet where he was meeting Greg Gutfeld, Bill Schulz, and Andrew Breitbart.  Greg then sent out a Tweet that while they were waiting for Andy, Ann Coulter had walked by the bar and now they had her in there with them drinking.  Suddenly, I realized that if I were in New York and a little more involved, this would be my kind of circle of friends.  Now I was inspired.  More than anyone else I wanted to meet Breitbart.  If the opportunity ever arose, I would do just that, even if I had to drive to another town nearby to hear him speak.  His CPAC speech REALLY inspired me.

Crappy Birthday To Me.  My 46th birthday.  I was surfing the web and saw the horrific news.  Andrew Breitbart had died.  I posted it on FB and asked the haters to please hold their nastiness because this guy was my hero.  I had felt like an old friend died.  The haters behaved, but I started embracing Twitter more.  I started following people less for celebrity and more for thought.  Entertainers were out, politicians, bloggers, and conservative thinkers were in.  On a side note, my dad passed away 26 days later so March 2012 really really sucked.

Watching Greg Gutfeld's Twitter (@greggutfeld) as well as Andy Levy's (@andylevy), I discovered the art of Live Tweeting.  Watching Andy Tweet about Chris Brown during the Grammy Awards was hilarious.   I dabbled during awards shows, and finally started watching my Twitter feed during Red Eye itself.  I was once again inspired.  Once I discovered how to use the connect button and learned proper Twitter protocol, it was on.

For the last couple of months I have been racing to log onto my laptop the second I get home around 2am in order to Tweet right from the first story.  I have a new circle of friends, my social media standings have gone up, and I'm loving every minute of it.  But we NEVER stay on topic.  In the last 2 weeks, there was a conversation that started with me talking about eating candy corn during the show, and that conversation was still going on 48 hours later.  Also during that time frame, in the last few days in fact, Andy briefly mentioned the hard rock band Triumph.  Their only relationship to the story was that they're a Canadian Band.  I Tweeted that I had seen them in concert with Molly Hatchet in 1985, and the conversation about rock and roll and our favorite concerts went on for the duration of the show.

That brings us to the last few days.  I had something I wanted to say about Obamacare, and I found a hosting site and just started writing.  Response has been good and I thank everyone who's been looking.  I'll try to be funny next time.  It's what Breitbart would have wanted.  I have to believe that.

-I am Adam Johnson.  I'm a Nebraskan, a conservative, and my biggest hobby these days is to live tweet Red Eye W. Greg Gutfeld.  My Facebook is generally for friends family and games, but if you like this, follow my political based Twitter @awj9009.