The Zombieslayer

“Don’t waste your vote on McCain,” Bob Barr said as he addressed a group of fellow Right-Wingers.

Agreed. You know I’m not voting for Obama, but to make one thing clear, that doesn’t mean I’m voting for John McCain. I hate the guy. I’ve hated the guy for a decade now.

John McCain has nothing to offer. He has gotten an F- from the Gun Owners of America before, he’s one of the co-sponsors of the Amnesty for illegal aliens bill, and he was in the forefront for that $700 billion waste of YOUR money. Small government my ass.

To add insult to injury, McCain wants to give a cabinet position to Carla Fiorina. If you don’t remember her name, she’s the former CEO of HP who ran the company into the ground, got fired and got a $21 million golden parachute out of it while sending thousands of American jobs to India and insulting American workers on their way out the door. Yes, I’m not making this up. The facts are all over the news.

So she can’t run a corporation. Great. She’d fit in perfect with McCain’s campaign.

I know a lot of people love to hate Palin but I think she’s a decent human being. Yes, I disagree with her on a lot of issues but she at least has one thing right - guns. McCain though doesn’t have a good bone in his body. He’s mean, he has a short fuse, and the absolute last person I’d want running this country is a “maverick.” I like to know where someone is coming from. If one is changing their stance on a daily basis, I don’t trust them.

My boss gets it

My boss is as Left as I am Right. But he’s an intelligent man and gets it. In ‘04, he didn’t waste his vote on John Kerry. He said “a politician has to earn your vote.” Exactly. You don’t just give your vote away because the other guy’s an idiot. That’s a waste of a vote. The person you vote for needs to earn your vote.

So he ended up voting 3rd party. So did I. Couldn’t stand George W. I knew he was an idiot in ‘00 and didn’t vote for him then either.

I’m not telling you how to vote. Vote for whomever you think is right. But do your research. Find someone who you would be PROUD to represent you.

As for me, I’m voting for Bob Barr. Yes, he’s done things in the past I don’t like, but he’s a changed man and I like what he’s been standing for for the past five years. He stands for Freedom and Privacy, two things we need to start fighting for after losing a lot of Rights under George W. If you want more info, go to his website. He stood against the bailout, against the Iraq War, for Freedom, Guns, and Privacy, against Surveillance, lower taxes, for increasing Border Patrol and taking illegal immigration seriously, etc. Sure not every issue he and I agree on, but at least we have things in common. I have nothing in common with John “anywhere the wind blows” McCain.

This is part two of my last rant. I hope I didn’t sound like I was anti-college. I’m not. I’m just saying that college isn’t the end all be all of employment. If college is your route, go there for the education, not as a guarantee of a job.

Sage mentioned trade schools. Yes, trade schools are underrated. One of my buddies went to a technical trade school and weathered both storms I got hit by, the early 00s and today’s. He’s doing great. Meanwhile, almost everyone else I knew has either been laid off or is worrying about it.

Do not do things to please your parents. I tell this to my son all the time. Don’t get good grades for me, do it for yourself.  And be the person you want to be, not the person you think I want you to be.

I went to college for 6 years - four years to get my Bachelors, and two years in Grad school. I dropped out of Grad school because I was seeing dollar signs in the technical field, and knew that I already had the knowledge to get a good job so the Masters degree was meaningless.

In that time, I saw a lot of people who didn’t belong in college. They were there because their parents expected them to be there. They ended up rebelling in other ways, like destroying their bodies with alcohol or something else equally stupid. Then they drop out because they think they couldn’t handle it but in reality, they had no business being there in the first place.

Life is short. You most likely won’t live to be a hundred. If you do, great, but that still doesn’t mean you should waste your prime years in something you hate doing.

Do something you love doing, and if it means you have to give up the big house, the dream car, and the giant TV, so what? Do you really need the big house, the dream car, and the giant TV? Will those three things really make you happy?

Forty hours a week plus the time you spend commuting is a lot of time.  Don’t waste it doing something you hate.  Your life is worth more than that.

So I’m talking to some fellow musicians. These ones happen to be a generation younger than me. They’re not looking forward to the future at all.

A singer I was talking to said he’ll probably have to get five degrees. He knows with globalism, you now have to compete with everyone else in the rest of the world. Great feeling. I’m sure he’s proud of his parents’ generation, you know, the ones who sold out his future.

He also got to see how we just spent $700 billion and the execs took that money and rewarded themselves with wild parties.  Great.  Not only that, they got to expand their golden parachutes.  And people wonder why I was against the bailout.  Let’s see, the Dow’s barely over 8000.  Do you think the bailout worked? I don’t either.

The drummer I was talking to told me about how his father said to pursue his dreams. His mother on the other hand is convinced he HAS to go to college because he has to think about his future.

I told him that his mother has her head up her ass. Except, with a little bit more tact than that. What world is she living in?

The truth is, pretty much no one has job security. College doesn’t mean shit. It’s no guarantee of anything.

If any young people read this, your parents are wrong. Pursue your dreams. The average person lives to be in their late 70s. Take off eight years if you’re a male.

You’re going to be laid off. You might as well enjoy what you’re doing. If you work hard at something you hate, believe me, the layoff is going to hurt that much more.

I actually had some cool articles written about losing fifteen pounds and other personal matters, but unfortunately, Congress is wasting my time and I’ll have to do a third article on this because it’s not going away.

Don’t fall for George W Bush’s “No Banker Left Behind Act.”  That’s what it is.  Is there any talk about helping people pay their mortgages? Or what about the people whose jobs have been sent overseas? Instead, we’re talking about spending $700 billion on bailing out poorly run corporations so the CEOs can get their $50 million golden parachutes.  Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Congress is now considering allowing the Executive Branch the authority to take our money and give it to foreign banks and corporations.  Beware of this scam.  It’s bad news, and is no way a good use of your tax money.

The other thing, your taxes will be raised if this passes.  Do you want to pay more tax than you already do?

You’re not getting anything in return.  So the stock market drops.  I’ve already lost a lot, but I’m riding it out.  Like I said before, have money in cash handy and when it bottoms out, buy.

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Bailout or no bailout, we may have a recession coming up.  The bailout isn’t fixing the root of the problem, just putting a band aid on it.

That said, cut your spending.  Pay off your debts.  Build your savings.  Continue funding your retirement accounts.  And above all, make sure you spend less than you make.  If you have to hire an accountant to figure why you’re not coming out ahead, do so.

One more thing, there will be even more layoffs.  Do everything you can to make your job not expendable.

It may be ugly.  Hard to say.  Nobody knows the future.  Anyone who says they do, just back away slowly.

But the numbers look bad.  High inflation.  High unemployment.  We may be up for rough times ahead and I’d rather go to your blogs and find that you’re all surviving.