What Are You Thankful For This Pandemic Year Thanksgiving?

I am so thankful to be at work. I am thankful that this year I have had more work than I’ve had since I was laid off in 2015. Maybe this long downturn is finally ending?

I’m thankful I still have some savings left. I’m not totally broke yet. I still have my house and most of my assets, though I’ve had to sell off a few things in order to survive the last few years with practically no work. I’m thankful I’ve had the years of experience of working in the offshore oilfield which prepared me for this time. I did all I could to be ready for the layoffs.

I’m thankful to be fairly healthy. I’m not deaf, dumb, blind or seriously injured. I do have some health issues (I’m getting old) and I’m still fat (nothing new there, I still have no success dieting). I’ve pretty much given up on that and just accept that I enjoy my food and drink and always will. I’d rather enjoy it all rather than deprive myself in hopes of a few extra years of life.

You never really know what’s going to happen anyway. You could die in a car wreck tomorrow. I could find out I have some kind of cancer next month. I have such a hard time right now with this ‘pandemic’, it has a 99%+ survival rate but everyone in the world seems to think it’s worth throwing away everything that makes life worth living in order to be ‘safe’. Like anyone ever could be.

There is no such thing as 100% safety in this world. Life entails risk! There is no living without it! Giving up so much, reaching for that 1% just seems totally insane to me.

I’m thankful for my friends. They accept me as I am. I don’t have to dress up or play any games. They don’t run me off (very often) if I start going on about one of my ‘conspiracy theories’. I’m glad I have so many I can talk about such interesting subjects with. I get super tired of having nothing to talk about but sports and babies!

I’m thankful that I’ll be able to eat and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner out here on the boat where we’re all living pretty much normally (we just check our temperatures daily). I do not have to worry about any idiotic mask mandates or restrictions on how many friends I can invite over to eat!

I’m really, really thankful that more and more people are starting to wake up. To stand up and fight for their (and our) freedom. That they are no longer willing to submit to the idiotic, arbitrary and ultimately useless rules and restrictions being forced upon the world using the excuse of a deadly pandemic (covid).

I’m thankful that I can still get around (tho who knows how much longer that will last with all the covid restrictions ongoing). I’ve been able to keep my ’97 F-150 going and do my best to take care of it. I don’t ever want to have to buy another car in my life!

I’d love to find somewhere to live where I don’t need a car at all. Somewhere like where I grew up in Florida, where everything I needed was within easy walking distance. Not like Texas, where everything you need is miles away and we have no real options for public transportation.

I’m thankful that I still have access to so many great books to read! I have my kindle with me and it’s full of a few dozen good ones. Everything from travel to horror, to biographies and science fiction. I also brought a stock of magazines with me. I’m still working through the Seaways from the Nautical Institute and just started on the National Geographic. I still have a couple of Smithsonian’s and Reason magazines to get through.

I’m thankful I have my house and garden to go home to when I get off this boat. A place of my own where I can spread out. I can relax and lay down on the couch if I feel like it. I can fill the fridge with food, cook and eat anything I feel like. I can adjust the temperature to where I’m comfortable (this boat is always freezing!). I can work on projects like painting while listening to my favorite music. I can look forward to getting outside to clean up my yard while the weather is nice and cool. I can enjoy watching my plants do their thing and pet the visiting cats that come by to meow at me pretty much every day.

I’m thankful for my cameras and computers. They allow me to take photos to help me remember all the fantastic places I’ve been and all the beautiful people I’ve met. I can look back and remember all the good times I’ve had and fantasize about having more in the future. I can wind up practically drooling over some of the emails I get describing bucket list destinations.

They also allow me to share and meet people all over the world who I’d never be able to in any other way. I’m thankful for that too. 🙂

What are some things you’re thankful for?

What’s Really Open in Europe for Americans Now?

So, where in the world are people still living normal lives? I’ve heard Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, and of course the poster child- Sweden.

Sweden sounds like a beautiful country. I was there once when I was in high school. We stopped at Visby for a couple of days. I don’t remember a whole lot except that the weather was gorgeous and it was very green. I’d like to go back for a visit some time and see more of the country.

Croatia looks beautiful from what I’ve seen of it online. I used to work with a couple of guys from there. They both made it sound very nice.

Serbia? I don’t know anything about it except that it had a war going on for a while. I should probably be ashamed for my ignorance. I would love to go there and learn more about it. Any Serbians here, please feel free to inform me. 🙂

I’ve been to Turkey a couple of times. I really loved it. I love history and I enjoyed spending time in the many museums and some of the ruins around the country. The coastline is gorgeous and I bet there must be some good places to SCUBA dive. I could definitely see myself spending some time there.

Is anybody on here familiar with any of these countries? I’m especially curious right now about how different places are dealing with the covid-19 virus. How close to normal (the old normal, not the ‘new normal’) are they?

I think I will spend some time researching how many countries Americans are allowed to travel to and how much time we’re allowed to spend there. I hate to spend so much time, money and effort to go someplace and then get chased out after a short time due to visa issues. I think we were allowed only 3 months in European Schengen zone (before covid) and not allowed at all in a lot of places at this point.

Sad. Really, really sad.

New Normal? NO! Let’s Go Back to Living!

I haven’t been very motivated to write or do much of anything else since all this covid crap started. I’m sure some of you believe it is a serious disease and we’re ‘all gonna die’ if we’re exposed to it like the media keeps terrorizing everyone with their dire predictions (none of which are true). I don’t believe any of it.

Oh yeah, I’m sure covid-19 is a new disease. What I don’t believe for a NY second is that it ever was a “dangerous pandemic”. We’ve known from the beginning that basically the only people seriously endangered if they catch it is those people who are already medically compromised.

What I don’t understand is why did most people around the world believe without a second thought what they were told by the ‘authorities’? Why did almost no one take a minute to question the narrative? Why did we all the sudden go along with their orders to place ourselves under house arrest- when we’re HEALTHY?

Why do we go along with the propaganda that this disease is so very different than every other one that we’ve ever dealt with? Normally, when we have something catching going around, we isolate those people who are sick- NOT the healthy people! Why are we doing the opposite now? Oh yeah, cause supposedly we’re ALL sick. We just don’t know it

That’s another thing. When did we all the sudden decide that someone is sick when they don’t have any signs of any kind of sickness? Covid testing involves sticking a swab so far up your nose there is pretty much a zero change that anything they find up there is ever coming out on its own. Even then, they have to multiply that sample dozens of times to make it come out with enough of a virus to show up positive. Then again, those tests are notorious for being WRONG.

But, because of all this, we’ve allowed our leaders to force the entire world to shut down.

The “new normal”.

This is causing MUCH MORE death, destruction and long term human misery than ANY virus ever possibly could!

Personally, I want to travel again. FREELY. I want to be able to enjoy life again. I am furious that so many people feel like they are justified in causing all this misery. I see the world falling apart and my country destroyed, it will never recover if we don’t stop this theft of our freedoms NOW.

I am torn between doing all I can to fight, staying home and taking a huge chance of winding up in some sort of prison. Or giving up everything I’ve ever worked for, running away to some foreign land and hoping it will not turn into the same panic driven banana republic the US is fast becoming.

It seems I am one of the very few who believe life is for LIVING and not for barely surviving while shivering in fear over some tiny chance of dying. Why won’t people face up to the fact that people die. It happens. It is going to happen to all of us one day. None of us is ever guaranteed to live even one more day, ever. Why are we allowing them to change so much of our lives for the worse, over THIS particular threat?

And one more question: why do so few allow their fears (or even worse- other peoples fears) to rule their lives and place no value on freedom?

Who Knows

I’m asking everyone her, who knows of a place- anywhere in the world- that has not gone bonkers over the novel coronavirus? Does anybody have any suggestions where a person can go to live like normal? NOT the “new normal”, which is anything BUT normal! I want to go back to actually LIVING my life, not getting used to giving up everything that makes life actually worth living.

I want to be able to talk to people- up close, not from 6 feet away- to see their facial expressions and smiles. I want to be able to give and receive a hug or a handshake without people looking at me like I’m going to somehow murder them. I want to be able to enjoy traveling again, in comfort (or at least what passed for comfort in those tiny airline seats). I want to be able to visit a new place without having to plan every minute in advance since everything is so confounding with all the ridiculous covid rules. I want to see busy city streets full of people living their normal lives and lined with thriving small businesses of all sorts- open to everyone without restriction.

I can’t stand to see what’s going on around the world and especially in America. Once the “home of the brave and land of the free”. Sadly, the insane over reaction to this virus has completely demolished any real freedoms Americans had left.

When “our leaders” can put all of under house arrest. When they can arbitrarily decide who can and can’t go to work, who’s allowed go shopping (and what we can or can’t buy), who’s allowed to keep their business going, …

They have taken it on themselves to decide who can and can’t actually LIVE in this ‘brave new world’ they’ve shoved down our throats. I shouldn’t say it like that, since it seems so very few object to this new medical tyranny.

Most of the people I see when I go out anywhere seem to be completely OK with the ‘mandates’ coming down from above. No matter how stupid, senseless and ridiculous they are!

For example, the mask mandates… there is not one single scientifically rigorous study anywhere that shows that masks help prevent the spread of the flu (or covid). There are a whole lot of them that do show that masks are actually harmful! Yet, our leaders still insist we wear them and most people are happy to comply. WHY?

I want to know WHY we have all thrown out our common sense and submitted to these draconian measures for THIS particular disease? The experts, even the ones at the CDC and the WHO have admitted that masks are NOT the way to go! They have admitted that these mandates (masks, social distancing, lockdowns) are all MUCH MORE HARMFUL than the virus itself.

Why does no one care about all the other reasons people die every year? All the deaths from car accidents, plane crashes, cancer, obesity, tuberculosis, malaria, and all the other diseases have somehow lose all importance and we ONLY care about covid- WHY?

I admit, I am a conspiracy theorist. but when there is no apparent reason for something then I start looking for something that may be hidden a little bit. In this instance, it is blaringly obvious to me that all this is about nothing but CONTROL. PERIOD!

Why this disease and why now? Simple, because it is only now that “they” are able to exert so much control over us all. With the rise of the “surveillance state“, digital currency (or even credit cards), and social capital like in China, they have the technology in place to track, trace and eventually take complete control of EVERY aspect of our lives.

You think not? Read George Orwell’s “1984“, “Animal Farm”, and Huxley’s “Brave New World” think about it a while and then tell me they’re not being used as a road map for ‘our leaders’ to follow.

What’s Happening

So, I was able to find another job after only 2 months at home this time. This company called me out of the blue late Friday afternoon and asked if I could join the ship by Monday. Luckily, I have been keeping my sea bags packed and only had a couple of things I needed to take care of before I could leave.

I flew to New Orleans Monday evening, spent the night in a hotel and had my covid test the next morning before heading to the ship in Morgan City. It’s an old Tidewater OSV. This company bought it cheap and somehow managed to find work for it.

There are hundreds of these vessels laid up all over Louisiana. If I had a steady paycheck or a decent amount of money in the bank, I would be looking to buy one myself. Of course, I would first need to find a job for the boat and I’ve never been much of a salesman. Too bad, now is a time of fantastic opportunities if you have any way to hold on until things get better.

Boats, real estate, etc. I think any hard assets would be worth investing in right now. I’m very tempted to take what little savings I do have left and put it into real estate. Either another small rental locally or something overseas in a place I’d like to spend some time.

That’s a major issue. I can’t decide where to go. I’ve already been trying to move out of the US for a long time. I hate watching what’s happening here. I realize there’s really nothing I can do to change things. I LOVE what this country stands for and I believe in our founding principles 100%. I just can’t stand to see all that just thrown in the garbage. It’s extremely frustrating, depressing and makes me miserable if I think too much about it. I try to ignore it most of the time, but like when I have to fly and the TSA forces the loss of my freedom right up into my face, I just can’t ignore it any more and the whole flight is ruined.

I’m not a big Trump fan, but I have to admit he did do some good things for this country. I was hoping he would win the election (if Jo Jorgensen lost). Bidens plans will just flush us down the toilet even faster. I’d like to see some REAL FREEDOM in the USA, or anywhere in the world for that matter!

My best hope at this point is the Seastead ship. The “Santochi”. I’ve already emailed to ask for a job on there. I don’t see them looking for mariners (they must already have some), but I do see them looking for painters, plumbers, carpenters, etc. If I had any of those skills, I would definitely apply!

The prices for ‘apartments’ onboard seems pretty reasonable, even considering that they’re all up for bid so might come in quite a bit more than their starting price. The real issue is the monthly cost on top of the purchase price. You have to pay a fee, similar to a condo fee for maintenance (fuel, water, electric, etc) and that will add up quickly. Too expensive for me to afford, although IF it was actually going to be run as a libertarian community I would sacrifice a LOT in order to be part of it.

As I said, I would love to see at least ONE place somewhere in the world where people could live with some real, actual freedom. The USA used to offer that. Sadly, that is no longer the case. It hasn’t for a long time now. It’s just getting to be more and more obvious.

The covid panic has brought it all out into the open. We have become a corporatocracy- 100%! We have no real freedom any more. Our state governors have declared that none of us has any right to work, to travel, to shop for food or anything else, to go to church or to gather for any reason. They have made themselves the supreme arbiters of our lives. WHO gave them that power??? I most certainly did NOT! NONE of us did! They STOLE that power and they have NO legitimate authority!

President Trump did the right thing constitutionally by ‘allowing’ the state governors to decide how to handle it, but if I were him (especially knowing everyone hated him already), I would’ve declared that the USA was going to handle the “pandemic” in accordance with our foundational principles. That we would not shut down ANYTHING. That if anyone felt concerned about their ability to deal with a virus that had only a 0.0003% fatality rate and almost no one realized they had until they had a swab stuck up their nose almost to their brain and then replicated dozens of times in order to gather enough of the virus to show up on the (60%+ WRONG) test, they’d be welcome to stay home and quarantine themselves. Everyone else was going to go on LIVING their lives!

Any ship, airline, bus or business of any sort doing business in the USA in any fashion would be 100% immune from any legal action relating to covid-19. People could choose to do business or not according to their own risk tolerance but they would NOT be able to push off the responsibility for their choices onto anyone else!

Americans would uphold their traditions of the home of the brave and the land of the free and NOT the country full of paranoid whiny babies who can’t take any personal responsibility and run home terrified to mommy government over the slightest risk.

The world has gone completely nuts over this covid virus. It deserves it’s name covid-1984! The governments and media of the world are complicit in the worst crimes against humanity by their decisions to TERRORIZE everyone over this disease.

What I don’t understand is why have so many otherwise intelligent people fallen so completely for the SCAM? Why do we pay even one bit of attention to our leaders when they insist that we can’t let even one person die (from covid- when milliions die every day from all sorts of other things)? It’s so OBVIOUSLY NOT ABOUT OUR HEALTH OR SAFETY!

And yes, even tho some people have died from covid, it is still a scam! There is NO reason at all to shut down the world over this particular disease. Ebola-with a 80%+ fatality rate, people melting down into a bloody mess- yes- THAT would be a justifiable reason to shut down the world. THIS disease is NOT!

Safety Sunday

I’m still here onboard the Ocean Evolution. It’s a slow Sunday at the dock. Usually Sundays are what we call “Safety Sunday”. We try to take it easy and do a lot of safety related stuff (more than usual).

We thought we were going offshore today to do some testing, so we did all our drills yesterday after the usual Saturday steak BBQ. Today I haven’t done much but a little bit of ballasting for some crane ops, a little bit of paperwork and standing gangway watch.

That whole gangway watch thing is new since 9-11. We’re supposed to be on the lookout for terrorists who instead of just shooting us with an RPG from the dock, want to try their luck to sneak aboard and somehow attack a ship full of some fairly tough men (these guys don’t sit behind a desk all day). We also have a lot of things that could be quite dangerous if we want them to be. A match for any bunch of losers with box cutters!

Personally, I think the whole ‘be afraid, be very very afraid” of the terrorist thing is WAY overblown. I have zero fear of any terrorist. What I do fear is the fact that our government has used that fear to destroy our way of life. They’ve done it a hell of a lot more effectively than any terrorist could imagine in their wildest dreams!

As an example, I was reading an article today on how many people in the US don’t yet have “REAL ID” (internal passports, just like the old USSR and NAZI Germany used to have- great examples we’ve decided to follow). I have no idea how the “added security” these new IDs will help us in the USA. After all, this country’s government has one purpose and one purpose ONLY.

That SOLE purpose is: to protect the rights and freedoms we already have as human beings!

Will someone, anyone, please tell me exactly how forcing us to “show your papers please” anytime we want to travel (which we’re constitutionally guaranteed to be able to do without any kind of government interference) is going to help anything?

The ONLY thing it will do, is to continue to turn us into a bunch of zombies, dependent on our government masters to protect us from everything in the world (including ourselves). We’ve already gone way too far down that road to serfdom.

I’ll post this quote from Ben Franklin again here. It’s just as true now as when he (supposedly) said it back when we were fighting for our freedom from the British.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

We need to wake the hell up and start fighting for it again NOW, before it’s too late. We will never have a safe society and I- for one- don’t want one. I want a FREE society. I want to be able to live my live, make my own choices and have the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. I am sick and tired of the nanny state being forced upon us all. We’re NOT all babies here. We’re entitled to live as fully functioning adults until and unless we prove we’re (individually) incapable of that.

I don’t know how many of you may support the nanny state we’re living in now, but if you do I’d like to hear your reasons. Why would anyone think we should choose to live in a “safe” society (which is unattainable) to living in a free society (which is also probably not 100% possible, but I’m sure it’s a lot easier to achieve and a lot better for a lot more people).

Let’s have a real discussion here. 🙂

PS- we used to be able to discuss interesting subjects like this in the local bars until the MAD mothers put a stop to that! Most of the bars have closed and no one talks anymore about anything but sports (men) and babies (women).

PSS- Just to be 100% clear- this blog is mine. Everything I post here is something I think is useful, relevant, interesting (to me and hopefully to others). It is never, in any way, related to any company or person I work for. My comments are based on my interpretations of my research and I don’t mean for them to reflect on anyone else. I don’t think what a person does on their own time should be anybody’s business at work, but apparently way too many businesses think they own you 24/7 and they do think it’s their business. I refuse to shut up, but again, just to make it clear. None of what I say here has anything to do with anybody but me. No company or boss has ever agreed with me on anything! 😉

Revolt- Why Not?

Today’s prompt for JusJoJan is revolt. Unsurprisingly, that is one of my favorite words. 😉

I want to (and sometimes do) revolt against all kinds of things: forced use of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets, no smoking laws, Taj Mahal school buildings and giving kids computers and tablets in school (causing sky high property taxes), insane drug laws, stupid piss tests, government restrictions on earning an honest living, stupid laws of all sorts.

I really can’t understand why Americans have changed from a population that would rise up and revolt against the greatest military power in the world over a tiny tax on ONE item (tea), to a population that willingly submits to tax rates of 50% and up on all earned income. To a nation with so many laws, thousands and thousands of pages worth of incomprehensible legalese- nobody even knows what they are.

We’ve turned into a police state. One where the cops can cite you for any of a hundred different laws you’ve broken. Whenever they want to. You think you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about? Read “Three Felonies a Day“. Take a look at the website over at the Institute for Justice for just a very few examples, a tiny sample of the abuse that so many innocent- yes innocent! people have had to suffer at the hands of ‘our’ government.

Remember the famous quote from the Holocaust…

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The same process is ongoing- right NOW.

No, I don’t necessarily mean they’re coming to kill us off next week. What I mean is what Martin Luther King Jr said…

“Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.”

More and more people are being turned into ‘criminals’. People who haven’t done anything wrong. They have hurt no one. More and more people are being displaced. More and more people are being shoved aside, wasted and destroyed. All because we have allowed ‘our’ government to run rampant all over the world.

Why aren’t people revolting against this? I would love to! The only thing that stops me is that I’m not stupid enough to put a target on myself in front of the government goons!

From a country whose beginning was all about FREEDOM, individual LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all, we’ve degenerated into a country where ‘our’ government seems intent on nothing more than violating our rights and stealing more of our freedom (and money) every day.

WHY aren’t the people up in arms? Why aren’t the people revolting? Why is anyone who tries to start any real discussions about our lost freedoms and the fact that ‘our’ government does nothing today but the total and complete opposite of its only legitimate purpose (which is to protect our inherent, natural rights) treated like a conspiracy theorist? 

Like they’ve escaped from the loony bin? Like they’ve lost their tin hat?

Personally, I think we NEED a revolt, I think we need one NOW. I think pretty soon we’ll lose all of our freedoms (the few we have left), if we don’t have another revolution PDQ.

I’m sure every one of the founding fathers thinks what’s happened to America is revolting. 😦

JusJoJan: Contemplation

I’ve been participating in Linda’s Just Jot It January challenge. I know I’ve been offline for a few days. It couldn’t be helped. I haven’t had enough internet access to get to my blog to post anything. I finally managed to get my computer hooked up (had to pay $32 for 750 mb) and have a little time to use it. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get on ’til I get back home.

I have still been ‘jotting’ various things every day, even if not online. Things like log book entries, positions, JSEAs, safety observation cards, etc. Does that count? 😉

I joined the vessel in Cameron, LA at about 2300 Thursday. We headed offshore the next morning and we’ve been busy working since then. Early this morning a cold front came through and the weather offshore kicked up pretty quickly. The divers can’t work in rough seas and so the decision was made to return to the dock and wait on better weather.

We arrived back in Cameron this afternoon. We had to shift ship a couple of times due to other boats at the dock. Now we are hunkered down for the night. It’s been freezing cold (literally) and we’ve even had snow! Right now I’m looking at a snow covered white parking lot (instead of the usual grey mud).

Today’s prompt for JusJoJan is “contemplation“.

One of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed working at sea was the time we get for contemplation. It’s just natural when you’re standing watch at night, looking out at nothing but the black waters and amazing star filled sky.

You wind up thinking about all kinds of things. Deep thoughts. Having really involved discussions with your watch mates. Thinking over all the things you want to do with your life. Thinking about all kinds of ways to solve the worlds problems. 😉

You might be surprised at how many famous people are former seamen, other than Mark Twain : Peter Falk (Colombo), Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O), Woody Guthrie, Oliver Stone (and many more). A seaman’s life gives you lots of time to think. Unlike so many other jobs today, most of which run you ragged without a minute to yourself.

I love working out here. I miss it when I’m home. I only wish it was still the way it was when I first started out. They’ve taken all the fun out of it. So many BS rules and regulations. I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to continue to work out here much longer. It’s just getting too hard to put up with the BS.

It’s been a balancing act for a while now. Ever since I had to come back to work in the Gulf of Mexico from overseas, I’ve been chafing at the bits. I just want to be able to do my job. Now, it costs me a fortune to keep all the various ‘training’ certificates up to date.

Another thing, I don’t do (illegal) drugs, but it violates every principle I believe in to submit to a piss test in order to go to work and yet even that is now becoming obsolete. Companies now are starting to require a hair follicle test! That is just completely unacceptable!

Here’s something to ‘contemplate’… How can such a minute amount of any substance (9 nanograms) possibly have any effect on your job performance? How can the test results with such a low level of any substance have any possible effect on your job performance a month after you’ve used that substance? How about 3 months later (piss test can detect)? How about 12 months (which a hair follicle test can detect)?

Simple answer: it can’t!

I want to know why any company should be allowed to tell you what you can and can’t do 3+ months before the day you’re working for them. Why can they dictate what you do on your time off? On weekends, your vacation? I want to know why so many people seem to believe these piss tests/hair follicle tests have anything to do with safety. I want to know why people are insisting since they have to take a drug test, everybody else ought to have to take one too. Just because you’re getting screwed, lets make sure everybody else is getting screwed too? Wow! Why isn’t everyone insisting that all drug tests have nothing to do with job performance, safety or anything else except CONTROL?

I want to know why Americans, who supposedly appreciate freedom are so accepting of this ‘slavery’.

It’s not, you say?

What else would you call it when a company refuses to honor your RIGHT to do what you want on YOUR time? Are they paying you 24/7? No, they’re not! Are they going to backdate your paycheck for the last 12 months before they hired you when you pass their tests since you have given up your RIGHT to live your life the way YOU choose and instead are following their rules? No, they are not.

I tell it like it IS. They want to OWN you, body and soul!

Contemplate that!

Share Your World Jan 1 2018

Cee always has such interesting challenges. I haven’t participated in this one for a while, it’a always fun to see what everyone comes up with. So here’s the challenge for this week and my answers…

I’m also counting this post for the Just Jot it January challenge for today. 😉

What one word describes you best? Hmmm, good question. Hard to chose one word. I considered: inquisitive, curious, friendly, loyal, adventuresome, well-traveled, freedom-loving, passionate, open-minded, outspoken, righteous, sovereign, capable, stubborn, tenacious, fun-loving, crazy, lazy, and more. 😉 But I finally settled on ‘frustrated’. Why? I guess because I am all those other things. Also, fairly obsessed with the ideals of freedom and justice for all. This is my main passion: freedom! I love it, I want it, I desire it, I need it! It’s incredibly frustrating to be raised in a country- (and so to believe what we’re all taught in school)- that constantly insists its only legitimate purpose is to guarantee (not to provide) the inherent rights and freedoms that we’re all born with– (re-read the Declaration of Independence again for proof)- and yet continually violates almost every one of those rights every day. It drives me absolutely nuts that so many ‘freedom-loving’ Americans really could care less about even a single one of those supposedly guaranteed freedoms. For just one (of too many to mention) example: TSA robs us of our right to travel freely all day long, every single day. Millions of people violated daily and all I hear every time I stand in that line is “I don’t care what they do, as long as it keeps me safe”. Reaaaally? Absolutely nuts!

What is set as the background on your computer? At the moment it is a gorgeous picture of a mountain scene. There is snow on the mountaintops, but it’s still green lower down. The sun is glowing brightly golden on the left side. Clouds are touching down off in the distance. I think it might be in Yosemite somewhere. Last time I had a photo of a snow covered town (I think in Norway somewhere), with little red houses and fishing boats, calm waters surrounding. I have not changed it since I got this computer.

If you have been to a foreign country name those you have been to? I’ve been to a lot of foreign countries! How about I list the ones I haven’t been to and still want to visit? First off: Antarctica- it’s not a country, but I really want to go there! Then, India, South Africa (planning a safari there asap), Botswana, Chile, Romania, Belize, Philippines, Panama, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Austria, Hungary, and more I’ll probably think of later!

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week?  Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. I very much appreciate that I was able to get a relief so I was able to get off my last ship before it left the country. I was really looking forward to the trip across the Atlantic and visiting the ports around Northern Europe (Bremerhaven, London, Vlissingen), but I learned once I got on board that I physically just wasn’t up for the job. 😦 I also appreciate very much, that I was able to get that job in the first place and so sorry I had to put my health first and leave the ship without completing the voyage.

JusJoJan: Boisterous

Day 2 of the Just Jot It January challenge. Today’s prompt is: boisterous. Click on the link to see how it works here.

You can chose to use the prompt word- or not. Yesterday I used the prompt of ‘drama‘, and got off on a tangent. I’ll try to stick to it better today. 😉

I’m having a hard time thinking of anything boisterous around here lately. 😦

I’ll have to go way, way back. Yeah, I admit, years ago my life was a lot more exciting. I was much more rowdy and I did enjoy going out, having a good time, partying every weekend. I was pretty wild myself and liked to hang out with other weird and wild folks. Sadly, I’ve had to give all that up.

I’m too paranoid to go out anymore.

They’ve pretty much broken me. Not completely, since it still angers and frustrates the hell out of me! But I can’t take the chance anymore of getting arrested, just for going out and having fun. I used to love going out to all the little dive bars around the county. Stopping in for a beer or 2. Listening to music, playing pool, talking to interesting people from all over.

I enjoyed the boisterous crowds, the (sometimes drunken) conversations, the crazy drama. I never was much of a dancer, but I always loved watching people dance. I liked to sing karaoke and cheered for everyone else (no matter how awful they might be).

Now, I’m getting too old to enjoy it. I can’t really enjoy myself when I’m worried about getting arrested. I don’t know how so many people can think its a good thing to make everything ‘illegal’.

Instead of hanging out with friends, having interesting discussions about what’s going on in the world, I’m sitting at home watching Law & Order: SVU reruns and blogging for a connection to the world.

Maybe it’s just that I’m getting old. Too old to take chances anymore, but I think it’s more than that. I think the world is changing. Our country is changing, and NOT for the better.

Nothing to do with Trump or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, or whoever might happen to be president. It’s way beyond that. Trump’s right, it is the swamp and it needs to be drained! Other people call it the ‘deep state’. Whatever, it is reality and it is a big part of what’s wrong with this country!

Seriously, do we really need so many thousands of ‘laws’? Obviously, NO, we DON’T! We got along perfectly fine for the first 200 years since the foundation of this country without 99.99999% of the laws on the books today. This country used to be much more free (and boisterous- it was good for us!).

Today, everyone wants everything to be ‘safe’. Everyone wants ‘security’. No one wants there to be any chance, or risk to anything. Look at all the warnings on everything, everywhere. It’s absolutely stunning to me that the USA, the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave”, has degenerated to such an extent.

I think it’s incredibly sad. We’ve ignored Franklin’s warning. We have thrown away our freedoms in hope of security. What a sad shame. 😦

JusJoJan: Drama

Starting out the new year without all the usual drama. Why? Mostly because I’ve been staying home, sticking to myself, too paranoid and depressed to go out to celebrate the holidays with everyone else.

I decided to join in on Linda’s Just Jot It January challenge again this year. The idea is just to write something (anything) every day during January. Hopefully it will be enough to start a good habit that will continue.

I’ve been trying to transition from working on the water to a more sedate lifestyle. Not by choice, but only because there has been approximately ZERO work for the last 2+ years! I’ve been trying to make a living with a more creative focus. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, photography, painting, etc.

I’d love to be able to just relax, chill out and stop worrying about all the ‘drama’ going on around me. Crazy issues always coming up with tenants, roommates, family, work (or lack of work/finances) and just the normal everyday shit going on in the world.

I wish I could just focus on one thing. Writing, for example. I’ve started a book, I’m on the last chapter, but haven’t worked on it in a couple of months now. I just can’t get motivated to write when I’m trying to deal with all the rest: how to pay the bills, crazy woman in my house (she’s gone now), finding a job, city sending me threatening letters about my properties/tenants, getting income taxes sent in, brakes gone out on my truck in the middle of Houston traffic!

Oh yeah, I’ve been having a wonderful life these last few months. But you know what? I think I would get so bored if I didn’t have all this shit going on around me. I do bring a lot of it on myself.

I grew up in a crazy house, two of them. I’m sure I would’ve been taken into protective custody if any of that had happened today. Both my parents houses were pretty wild. Constant drama at both places. My brother was lucky, he could pick and choose. He could stay at Dads where he was treated like a king, until he wasn’t. Then he would go home to Mom’s where he could do whatever he wanted.

I was stuck at my Dad’s most of the time. He was really strict on a lot of things, but very open about a lot of others. He ran a pretty strange household for back then. First of all, he didn’t work anymore. He retired in his early 30’s. Bought a bunch of property and a sailboat and got out of the rat race. I’ve always admired him for that.

He worked on his boat and rented apartments to all the ‘poor’ people in town. Our apartments were full of the local fishermen, bartenders and drunks. We had parties on the shuffleboard courts every weekend and big pig roasts in our empty lot every couple of months. Dad would have me play the piano upstairs for his drinking buddies.

Moms house was a whole different adventure. We were allowed to keep pets over there and have friends come over. We had cats, dogs, fish, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, parakeets, even a kinkajou once (that only lasted til it bit my mom real bad one night). My stepfather would hang out drinking beer and making crude comments all day while we tried our best to ignore him and stay out of his way.

Between the two of them, there was always some drama going on. I think in a way I miss all that. I try to keep my life interesting and not boring. I’m not bored often, but that’s because I always have something I should be doing. Most of those things are only because I say so.

I don’t have to write, work on my photos, paint, blog, etc. But I like to do those things and even tho they’re a lot more work than I ever imagined, they keep my busy and I still enjoy messing around with it all.

I’ve actually cut down a lot. I hardly even go out anymore. That eliminates a lot. I miss out on all of my friends, but I can’t take the chance of going out to see them any more. It’s sad, but this place is not the same anymore.

They’ve taken all the fun out of life here. All in the name of ‘safety’. Screw safety! I’d rather have a LIFE back! Stop shoving us all into tiny little perfectly ‘safe’ boxes and let us enjoy our lives. So what if we screw up occasionally? So what if we have a little accident every once in a while, that’s how we learn! That’s all part of LIFE!

Stop pretending life is about being safe, or secure. It’s NOT! Life is about taking chances, experimenting, seeing the world and everything in it, meeting new people and learning new things. None of that is about being ‘safe’!

I could do without all the drama around the issue of safety! The theatre they put on at the airports with the TSA. Geez, how long are they going to keep that up? How long is it going to take for people to wake up to the fact that none of that is anything BUT a SHOW?

I’m so tired of other people trying to control me! Aren’t you?

Travel Day

I made it home. Finally!

I was surprised Tuesday morning when my relief showed up. I was waiting in the cargo control room to get my work assignment from the Bosun at 0800 when he popped in. I was so happy to see him.

I really wasn’t ready to go yet. I didn’t expect a relief to show up til late afternoon. I still had to finish packing and cleaning my room. That didn’t take too long. By the time the captain was ready to sign me off, I was ready to go.

I left the ship at about 1030, my flight was due to leave Norfolk at 1214, so I was a little nervous about getting to the airport on time. No need to have worried. I checked my luggage outside (and had to pay a $25 fee- thanks Delta!) and then went inside to check in.

I had to go to a live person, the machines wouldn’t check me in. Turns out my flight was delayed for over 2 hours and so I would miss my connection in Atlanta too. I was scheduled to arrive in Houston by 1800. Turns out, I didn’t get there til almost 2400!

Six hours late, due to Delta’s screw ups and they would do absolutely nothing about it. No offers of food, drinks, vouchers, lounge use,…, no NOTHING to help defray the stress and aggravation of a more than 6 hour delay.

I did finally manage to get a $15 food voucher out of them. Barely enough to cover one meal, while missing 2- 3 due to their delays. At least it was something, tho they told me they don’t normally do that. Some customer service, wow! 😦

No wonder I don’t fly Delta anymore!

I got home about 0300 the next morning. So tired I could hardly keep my eyes open on the road. People worry about drunks on the highways, but I guarantee you- tired people cause much more damage! And yet, drunks get all the punishment, wether or not they’re actually any trouble.

No, I’m NOT saying that tired people need to go to jail and have their lives destroyed the same as they treat the drinkers! Most of them who have not hurt anything or anybody! So they’ve all been punished for some future possibility!

What they need to do is to change the rules so that they’re actually keeping people safe on the roads and not just collecting fines and ruining peoples lives over the ‘chance’ that they ‘might’ at some point in the future harm something or somebody.

Stop harassing and arresting people for some possibility of something they ‘might’ or might not do and start checking to see if they are actually competent! Same goes for the stupid drug tests at work and the idiotic TSA ‘terrorist’ searches at the airports!

I’m so sick and tired of everybody telling me all this crap is for our ‘safety’ and ‘security’. NO, it is NOT! It has NOTHING to do with either one of those things! It has nothing to do with anything other than CONTROL and the destruction of our most basic human rights!

The TSA agents in the airports actually have the nerve to tell us ‘have a nice day’ after they  intentionally (even if ignorantly) strip us of our rights and our dignity. How can anyone have a nice day after being treated like that?

Yes, I know, most people sincerely believe all this crap is necessary and is really for their safety. All I can say to them is: WAKE UP! You’re being LIED TO and your complacency is making it ever easier for the goons to move all of us even further down the road to tyranny.

Happy New Year!

Frustrated

I am just steaming right now!

I FINALLY got a call for a real job! First one in ages, and after talking to them for a few minutes, they eliminate me because I don’t have one, (just one), of the multitude of newly required certificates of “training’.

You want to know which one? It’s a fairly new one, called “T-HUET”. T-HUET is supposed to be a less involved iteration of the HUET. HUET is a less involved iteration of the BOSIET.

I have the HUET, in fact I just renewed it. I also have BST (which has also been repeatedly renewed). They have not taught anything new in either course in the last 20 years.

ALL of these courses cover almost exactly the same stuff! But the companies now are insisting that you need to spend the thousands of dollars and weeks of time to take ALL 3 of them! Of course, THEY will no longer help pay for any of this. YOU need to spend all YOUR time and money on this stuff!

This is the email I just now sent off to the recruiter:

Just for your information:

T-HUET 

Course Outline

Procedures at Heliport

Helicopter Safety Equipment

Types of Helicopters used in the Offshore Industry

Dangers associated with Helicopters

Helicopter Safety Procedures

Preparation prior to Emergency landing

Emergency landing on Land

Surface Evacuation into an Aviation Liferaft

Escape from a Partially and Capsized Helicopter

In – water Survival Procedures

Helicopter Winching

HUET

Course Outline

Procedures at Heliport

Helicopter Safety Equipment

Types of Helicopters used in the Offshore Industry

Dangers associated with Helicopters

Helicopter Safety Procedures

Preparation prior to Emergency landing

Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET)

Emergency Breathing System Exercises

In -water Survival Procedures

Helicopter Winching

I don’t know why they don’t add the following to their description of their HUET course since they DID cover that same material. The only thing they did NOT cover that they say they do in the T-HUET is:

• Surface Evacuation into an Aviation Liferaft- (we DID do this in the HUET course)
• Escape from a Partially and Capsized Helicopter- (this is the exact same thing as what the HUET course describes as Helicopter Underwater Escape Training)
• Emergency landing on Land

Do these companies SERIOUSLY want to eliminate pretty much ALL experienced mariners from consideration because they don’t have 10 minutes of ‘training’ differing in a course (that is only for the insurance company that has no clue about what ANY of these courses cover anyway)?

Do they really expect someone who has been out of work for months or years to pay hundreds of dollars for another course when the ONLY difference is at most a half hour talk about emergency landing ON LAND??? We get that same lecture every single time we fly, wether to go to work in the helicopter or flying to vacation. I would think it is 100% memorized by everyone in the country by now!

So now it is not years of experience and who can do the job, but who has the largest stack of certificates (most of them completely irrelevant to the job at hand). That is really sad.

I am perfectly willing to wait and ride the crew boat in if they are not willing to put aside that 10 minutes! I think it’s NUTS to throw someone out of a month of work because of some ridiculous ‘rule’ like this!

And you can feel free to pass this email on to Oceaneering (and any other company with the same stupid rule!). Just in case they REALLY believe there is some inherent advantage to their insistence on T-HUET, please do send them the facts, the ONLY difference is 10 minutes about emergency landings ON LAND!

Hope I’m not burning my bridges here too, but some things just have to be said!

Jill Friedman

MASTER MARINER (35+ YEARS OFFSHORE EXPERIENCE).

Do you think that was a little excessive? I don’t, I really don’t. I am getting SO fed up with the amount of complete and total pure BULLSHIT these companies are putting us through. Just in order to go to work for them.

Does anyone really think that after almost 50 YEARS spent working at sea, that 10 minutes, or even if I really push it, 2-3 hours of instruction, will make ANY difference to ANYTHING out there? If anyone does, there is no other word for those people than “INSANE” or “STUPID”. And yes, I am specifically talking to everyone involved in insisting on requiring these so called “training’ certificates!

They’re expensive and they’re USELESS! I know it and you damn sure OUGHT to know it!

How many mariners have you heard gushing about how much they learned in one of those courses? How many have you heard thanking the heavens that they’ve been forced to waste their vacation time in one of those classes instead of spending their time enjoying it the way they EARNED the RIGHT TO?

I can count the number of mariners who’ve felt that way on one hand, and after working out there for so many years, I know a LOT of mariners!

This whole certification rigamarole is just one more unnecessary burden. It’s not as if it’s all that great offshore anymore. They’ve cut and they’ve cut and they’ve cut some more. Yeah, things were finally getting pretty nice out there. Back a couple of years ago when the price of oil was sky high and they needed us badly and so were finally willing to offer us decent pay and conditions. Up until the price of oil dropped like a rock.

Now, we’ve dropped right back to where we were decades ago. Lost pay, lost benefits, lost time at home. Increased workload, increased forced ‘training’ and costs associated with all that, loss of freedom, loss of opportunity.

I used to think this was the best job in the world. It really was, way back when I started. Now, nah, not so much. Yeah, I still do personally consider it the best for me. I really can’t imagine anywhere I’d rather be than out on the ocean somewhere. Sailing to some obscure foreign port with adventures awaiting.

Sadly, there’s not too much of that on offer anymore. It looks to me more and more that my days of sailing the seven seas are about over with. After so many years of fighting to get my license, it’s become all but worthless these days.

Who in their right mind would want to sail as master these days? When every meaningful decision is made by some bean counter on the beach? Yet YOU and ONLY YOU are the one held responsible for the results of those decisions. When you have NOTHING to say about them?

That license you worked so hard to get will be taken from you. Without it, you can’t work ANYWHERE! On top of that, they will probably fine you a lot of money (millions), and then throw you in prison just to make sure that bus runs you over reeeaally good.

The companies need you for your license (by law) but refuse to pay you for them now (see my last job). They treat you like shit and expect you to lap it up like you were slurping down an ice cream Sunday (with a cherry on top)!

The longer it takes me to find a job, the more frustrated, cynical, depressed and angry I get. I think it’s just sick that a company in need of good workers would turn someone with my qualifications and years of experience away simply because they lack one simple certification. Especially when that particular piece of paper is so completely worthless! I worked for that company for 5 years, they KNOW I am perfectly capable and will do them a good job!

I’ve probably just burned my bridges with them and a bunch of other companies office people with this rant. Well, so be it. They need to hear it. For damn sure I’m not the only mariner who feels this way. I guarantee I’m saying what most would say about the situation. These companies need to wake up and get their heads out of their asses and THINK for themselves for a change! STOP sucking up to the god damned insurance companies and their suck-ass lawyers and do the RIGHT thing for once! Stand up for their companies and their people instead of cowering behind the threats of the paper pushers.

God DAMN I wish people in the USA would grow some balls and start acting like the free people we brag to the world about!

I really wish I could afford to start my own boat company. It would be so nice to work for a company that was run by people who really understood the business and was willing to stand up for their employees. I don’t see any like that around anymore. It’s a real shame.

P is for Paranoid- #AtoZChallenge

“P” is for ‘paranoid’.

adjective

1. of, characterized by, or resembling paranoia

2. (informal) exhibiting undue suspicion, fear of persecution, etc

I’ve been called paranoid a couple of times in my life. I do have to admit, I’ve never been an optimist. I worry about all kinds of things (probably un-necessarily). I worry will I ever be able to find decent work ever again. I worry about how will I be able to pay the bills when my savings runs out. I worry about how we are losing our freedom here in the USA and will we ever wake up and start clawing it back from the power hungry bastards we elect that keep stealing it from us.

But is it really paranoid if they are out to get you?

I must have some sort of mental issue. I mean, I’m definitely not ‘normal’. ‘Normal’ people just ignore all the things that bother me so much. They would pass right by that mass of cameras and not even notice. And if they did happen to notice (like one fell on their head or something), they would only comment (while they bleed all over the place from the injuries it just gave them) ‘it’s all just for our own good’.

My stepmother used to tell me “don’t worry, the universe is in divine order”. I could see that for her, it sure seemed to be. She was very pretty, confident, talented, smart. She made a (very good) living as a topless bartender for decades. She had a beautiful house right on the beach paid for (by ex-husband) and really had nothing to worry about at all. She could (and did) live her life exactly as she pleased.

My best friend tells me all the time, “chill out, don’t worry so much”.  She is retired, with a decent pension, social security, a couple of other checks coming in every month, with a paid for house and although she  has some health issues, she really doesn’t have any concerns either.

For me, whenever I go out anywhere now, I see the red-light cameras everywhere and they drive me crazy! WHY does “our government” feel that they need to spy on us? What gives those people who actually do those jobs the idea that they have any sort of right to do it? I don’t even want to get into the fact that there are so many “laws” on the books that we are ALL guilty of breaking at least a couple every day (no matter how law abiding you may think you are)!

Try reading “Three Felonies a Day“. Take a quick look at the hundreds of thousands of “laws” on the books (last count 178, 277 pages at the end of 2015)! This for a supposedly “free country”. 😦

I go absolutely crazy in the airports over the TSA BS. It’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut. I’m grumbling through the whole process, from the minute I see the line start. It completely ruins the trip for me. WHO in the hell has decided that we must give up our INALIENABLE RIGHTS in order to travel? WHY have so many people just simply accepted their ridiculous excuses that “it’s only for our own safety”?

I have decided I must be some kind of mutant. I mean, I’m in such a tiny minority that it sure seems that way. Am I paranoid? Yeah, I do feel like they’re watching me all the time. The fact is that they ARE. They ARE watching ALL of us all the time! Every single email, phone call, website you visit, everywhere you go, every dollar you spend. Even your own house, phone, TV and appliances ARE spying on you now!

Poor Ed Snowden. He tried to wake us up. I consider him a hero for what he tried to do for us all. He gave up a lot to get the information out there. To put a stop to “our government’s” serious abuse of power. To wake us up so that we could take back our freedoms before it was too late forever.

I already knew most of what he said. It was all dribbled out in the news over the decades. But nobody paid any attention. Everyone still ignores it all. It’s just business as usual. Most people just go right on ignoring all the continuous everyday violations and don’t seem to give a damn at all. When I bring it up, the only thing they have to say is: “but it’s all for our own good”. WOW.

What in the world is “good” about living like that? Like George Orwell’s 1984, but worse?

WHY? That is what I want to know. No, not why they’re doing it. I already know that. It’s because they’re all a bunch of power hungry, greedy bastards! What I want to know is WHY does the general public put up with it? WHY are so few people concerned about it? WHY do so few people understand the real threats to THEM that this represents?

Paranoid? Yeah, I guess I am. But that doesn’t mean they’re not out to ‘get’ me. Or you!

I Only Thought I Was Too Tired

I really feel like spewing out a huge rant right now. I’m so tired I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere, but we’ll see. Fair warning!

I only fell asleep last night about 0130. Had the alarm set for 0330 so I could get up and be sure to have enough time to find my way to safety ‘training’ this morning. They said to be there by 0645, locked out if not there by 0700. I didn’t want to drive all the way up there, just to be locked out. So I made sure I’d get there plenty early.

Anyway. I spent the entire day from 0700-1600 with only a couple of 10 min breaks and a half hour for lunch going over some really basic safety stuff. Things I’ve been in control of for decades. I’ve been the one writing the JSAs, controlling the permits, writing the work procedures, testing the tanks, running the drills, writing the safety manuals, giving the safety training. Things I’ve been in charge of teaching others for decades.

WTF is all that experience completely worthless? I’ve got training certificates out the ring-yang, but not a one of them acceptable. Grrrrr…

These companies take no interest in the fact that their students know more about the subject than their teachers, if you don’t have the specific piece of paper for the specific company, it just doesn’t matter. You’re going to waste more time in ‘training’! (how do you make an ANGRY smiley face?)

Why the hell can’t they standardize their certificates so that you don’t need to get 2 dozen different ones to do the same damn thing! It’s the same offshore. No benefit to anybody except the training centers making a mint off these scams.

It pisses me off to no end to have to repeat this stuff over and over and over and over and over and over and over and especially when I’m not getting paid for it! Even more when I have to waste my money as well as my time. At least they didn’t charge me for it today. 

Or maybe it would’ve been better if they had. I would have immediately refused instead of spending all day today up there and tomorrow too. I wouldn’t be furiously steaming all afternoon about their company policies.

This all ties right in with my post from yesterday. The absolutely insane ideas people in the US have come to believe in the last couple of decades. The huge loss of freedom, individual liberty and human rights. The absolute and complete disrespect for us as individual human beings and our innate dignity.

They did spend about a half hour telling us about their company and allowing us to ask questions. That was useful. I learned a few things.

A to Z: Politics

Today’s A to Z challenge post is: Politics. Yes, I can hear the groans already, but I hope at least a few of you will bear with me for a while.

I’m sure you know by now how passionate I am about freedom and individual liberty (check my tagline!). This leads me to also being passionate about politics.

Not because I like politicians or want to become one, or even because I’m interested in the behind the scenes action. No, not at all. The only reason I’m interested in politics is because it has insinuated itself into every little detail of our lives.

We have completely lost sight of the principles of individual liberty this country was founded on. We have forgotten what it means to be free!

Just for example, there are now hundreds of thousands of ‘laws’ on the books, most of them totally un-necessary (and unconstitutional). We started out with a fairly short and simple document. The US Constitution. That document (along with it’s amendments and the Declaration of Independence) is the basis of all law in this country. It was purposely written so that every one could understand it. It was NOT supposed to need a lawyer to interpret it!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.- Declaration of Independence

*my emphasis with the bolding!

Somehow, those simple documents have grown into a system of ‘laws’ so overwhelmingly complex that not even the brightest lawyers can figure it out. There are so many ‘laws’  that it’s pretty much impossible for anyone to get through a day without breaking at least one!

Try reading the book 3 Felonies a Day by Harvey Silverglate (some other great books in that link too). It tells the story of how this situation came to be. How special interest groups manipulated the politicians to get benefits for themselves and the hell with everybody else. How when big benefits accrue to few, they’re justified in their hard work to pass these beneficial ‘laws’. The rest of us don’t bother to fight since it’s not really that big of a deal and it’s just so much work (if we’re even lucky enough to learn what’s going on before it’s already over). It hardly makes a difference to us, so why make the effort? This is how we wind up with millions of rules and regulations!

(Not to mention the Law of Unintended Consequences!)

I get so tired of people telling me ‘there ought to be a law’! Most likely, there already is! But even if there wasn’t, please tell me why we always need to use FORCE to solve every conceivable problem?

Do we really need a law to force kids to apply for government permission to sell lemonade in the front yard now? Do we really need a law to prevent people from collecting rainwater on their own property? Do we really need a law to prevent people from choosing their preferred method of relaxation? Do we really need a law to prevent people from gardening? Do we really need a law to prevent people from feeding the homeless?

OMG how the hell did we ever survive up til now?

All of those are (or recently were) against the law, right here in the ‘free’ country of the USA. Public interest law firm the Institute for Justice has been fighting to correct the injustice of enforcing these ridiculous ‘laws’. They’ve even managed to win a few cases. But it never ends, they just keep piling on more and more and more and more…

Do we really need all of these ‘laws’? Do we really need ANY of these ‘laws’?

Then WHY do we have them? What is preventing us from eliminating them?

It might be well hidden, but there are costs to each and every one of them! According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the cost of the regulatory burden was a staggering $1.88 TRILLION! And growing! In 2014!

That is just the cost of complying with the regulations- “in lost productivity and higher prices”. That does not take into account the other costs involved like the loss of choices, the loss of freedom, the loss of human spirit. I can’t even imagine what that would amount to in dollars. trillions? Quadrillions? Googles?Sexagintillions? Mega-multi-quadruple-googleplexes?

According to an article I read, the Federal Register was ‘only’ 2,620 pages long. By 2012 it was 78,961 pages, and since 1993 has been growing by an average of 286 pages per day! Read the article for more interesting statistics.

HOW did we get from a country where we declared “Give me Liberty or give me death!” to one with a (mostly useless) pile of rules and regulations standing taller than the Washington Monument? WHY are so very few people concerned about the insanely large government we have now and the almost total control they’re asserting over our lives? WHEN are people going to start thinking about the loss of freedom and individual liberty that’s happened just in our own lifetimes? WHAT is it going to take for people to stand up and take back their freedoms?

WHERE can lovers of liberty go if we can’t reverse this trend in America?

Busy Tuesdays

Tuesdays are always the busiest days of the week for me. Today was no exception. I woke up early (0430). I had to leave the house by 0530 to get to the training center on time. It’s all the way up in NW Houston, it takes me about an hour and a half if there’s traffic.

I spent the morning role playing for one of the training sessions. We have more and more of these required courses every year. This one was to assess how the trainee would handle emergency situations at work.

As a role player, I act the part of one of the bridge team. Today my job was to keep track of what was done as things progressed. I had to make note of the times certain things were done, for example: what time did the incident start, what time did they call for muster, was anybody missing, who, was help called, when, were the fire pumps started, etc.

It’s actually a pretty interesting ‘job’. I enjoy it. It will definitely help me when it’s my turn to take the class.

I stopped on the way home to get rid of some of my books at the Half Price Books store. Hard to believe, but they only offered me $6 for 9 (very good condition and great to read) books! I took 2 of them back after that. I’ll donate them to the library.

I got home in time to make a few phone calls (check to see if any news on the job that was supposed to start on March 4th, figure out why the pharmacy gave me the wrong prescription yesterday, call and message about another possible job). No satisfaction on any of them, I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

I went for my daily walk. The weather is still really nice and cool. I wish it lasted longer. We’re supposed to have another cold front come through tomorrow so it might last a few days more. 🙂

I checked out my plants. My lemon tree is blooming like crazy and is already making tiny little lemons. A bunch of them got blown off in the wind today. The lime tree didn’t have so much damage, but it’s right up next to the house. I’ve got 4-5 strawberries that look like they’ll be ready for picking in a few more days. I’ll have to keep a close eye out to get them before the birds do.

Came in and tried to check my email, in between the internet dropping off every few minutes. Nothing too important in the mail (nothing about work).

Off to the weekly Campaign for Liberty meeting for our usual political discussion. Last week we had a new guy show up. He had some interesting things to say. He sounded pretty hard core socialist to me, but we did agree on a lot of things (corporations have too much power, GMO labeling, fiat money, sky high debt levels). I have to admire him for sticking around for the entire meeting and holding his own when everybody else was on the opposite side on a lot of issues. Sorry to say, he didn’t come back tonight. 😦

Too bad. We really need to work together to find a way to fix what’s wrong. We really all do agree on a lot of issues but it seems like we just can never focus on that. We always wind up fighting over the few little things we disagree on. We’ll never win the real fight if we can’t figure out that we should not be fighting each other, we need to concentrate on the real enemy.

We’re going to try again to get the word out about our weekly meetings and to inform people about some of the concerns we have. It’s hard. We’re still a very small group and everybody is always so busy. Nobody really has any time to concentrate on this stuff and we have a lot of things we’re involved in (community garden, radios, GMOs, etc).

I promised to make a Facebook page. I hope I can remember how to do that. 😉

I hope to heck I’ll be at work next Tuesday! If not, I’ll go to painting class instead of role playing, they don’t have anything else scheduled up there til April 11th. I hope I don’t have to wait that long to go to work again.