Oh, hello!

Haven't posted anything here in a hot minute, so I guess I'll post a bunch of random stuff.




1. Vegas - Less than a month away before I make the journey to Las Vegas for the National Singles Championships. I'm still very excited, I'm also a little nervous. I definitely want to shoot well! I'm not sure yet whether I will be driving or flying. A fellow player in the area is getting nervous about not even being able to afford going, so I offered him a ride, which with us two splitting the gas, would be cheaper overall. We will see how that plays out.

2. Blog Stuff - I still need to add and update pages and whatnot, which I will get around to at some point. I'm a procrastinator and slacker if you haven't noticed by now.

3. Family and Politics - This was a situation that actually took place last night. My family is already divided down the middle on my mother's side, and it was due to issues that occurred after my grandparents passed away. It was between my and my cousins' parents, which we said we would stay out of.

However, what happened last night was my cousin, on the other side of the divide, was making some rather ignorant comments regarding social welfare on Facebook. I had watched him make similar posts in the past, and let it slide, but after last night, I decided to step in and try to make some reasonable points. His post pretty much said that if you don't work, the government will take care of you, and that if you lose your home in a disaster, FEMA will give you everything to rebuild, and anyone who does work, doesn't get any help.


The point I tried to make, is that with government assistance of any kind, you have to prove eligibility. You want unemployment? You have to prove you were actively looking for work. You want food stamps or medicaid, or medicare? You have to prove you make up to a certain amount of money, for state benefits. I tried to explain, that homeowners insurance, like with renters, or car insurance, covers you up to a CERTAIN AMOUNT. FEMA is disaster relief assistance. With insurance companies, there's a lot of processes you have to go through. You have to wait for investigations, and all manner of nonsense, to prevent you from abusing the insurance and getting more than you should. I also explained that people under a certain line of poverty have to make hard choices. What do they need more? Medicine, or homeowners insurance? Car insurance, or food? I also pointed out that I knew there was abuse of the system. There are people who abuse it, my own father is one of them. However, I reminded him that just because one person does it, doesn't mean they ALL do it. I grew up poor, my mother never took any government assistance, except for medicare when she got older, which she got kicked off of, because she was making too much. And in Missouri, she was making maybe 800 a month before taxes were taken. THAT was too much for government assistance. Let's not get into 300 a month rent. She eventually had to give up her vehicle because she couldn't afford it, and walked to work instead. Those are choices that you have to make.

Well he started taking attitude with me, talking about how I shouldn't pretend that I'm the only one who has problems. I never said that. Everyone on this planet has problems. Everyone has their own burden to bear. He talked about his own hard times, where he was out of a job for a year, and luckily, his biological father helped by getting him a car so he could get to work. He spoke of the student loans he had, the medical bills he had, because he CHOSE not to take government help, and he also chose, since he formerly served in the Marines for a short amount of time, he CHOSE not to use his VA benefits for medical, which would have saved him money in the long run. He started getting more lippy with me, swearing, threatening to "go there" with me.

You know what? Fuck that, and fuck you.


Cousin, I'm glad that you grew up more comfortable than I. You had two parents, your dad formerly served in the Marines, and he had a decent government job. You were lucky that you could also run to your biological daddy not too long ago so you could get help. I didn't have a daddy to run to. I had my mother, who slaved in the back of a dry-cleaners for over 20 years in temperatures over 100 degrees, all while trying to keep a roof over my head and keep me fed, while my own father leeched off the system and didn't bother paying child support. Not everyone has a daddy to run to, and that's why they are usually on assistance. Because their own family either couldn't help, or WOULDN'T, just like your part of the family refused to help mine.

And you want to go there? I unfortunately didn't know this interesting little fact before I said my part and defriended you, but did you know your mother leeched off the government? Did you know she had government assistance while she was pregnant with your sister, and LIED to the government about her income? Did you know she sells a lot of fake antiques in her antique shop? Did you know she leeched? Are you going to yell at her, or is it okay because she's your mother?


Another interesting point was taxes. He asked how much I got on my returns, and mentioned it was probably more because I had kids. Newsflash, I don't HAVE any children. He said he didn't get a return because he "made too much." But he didn't know he could list the student loans and medical bills as deductions on his taxes. He likely took a standard deduction, which put him in a lower tax bracket, which got him less money. He also blamed Obama from everything, from the sun rising, to it setting, without even bothering to realize (like a lot of Americans surprisingly) that we have three branches of government to limit power. Obama signs bills into laws, but those bills are voted on, and passed, in the House and Senate. He failed to realize, that those assistance programs are a safety net. Taxpayers pay into those, so that if they fall on hard times, their own money now assists them in their time of need.

He served very briefly in the Marines, without ever knowing any of this. How can you not know these things as an American? He became a naturalized citizen as a teenager, having been born outside of the U.S. He went to schools here, where he learned about the system, and yet doesn't understand how it works? And then he attacks me, because all I originally did, was try to educate him.

The biggest thing I pointed out was that big government is evil, and no government is just as bad. Once you take away government and assistance, you take away restrictions. Big business will profit like never before. They don't have to limit things if there are no restrictions. They will pay as little as possible, and reap all the profits, because greed is a big factor in this world. Minimum wage will take a sharp decline, while products will go up.

So as unfortunate as it is, I said my piece and severed my ties. I can't stand ignorance, I can't stand bigotry, and it's saddening that it came from my own family. I'm also appalled that he has virtually zero knowledge about the way our country works, how our taxes work, how our assistance programs work. And it's most unfortunate that he decided to attack me, when I did nothing but try to help him understand.

I'm not left-wing, I'm not right-wing. I see some things conservatively, I see other things liberally. I believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and that all citizens of this nation are eligible for it. I believe programs shouldn't be abused, but they are. I believe our government should have our bests interests at heart, but they don't. I believe that we need to treat each other better for the sake of our future generation, but we are not. Instead, we are a pissing, moaning, divided little country that will eventually self-destruct, allowing another country to easily take us over. That's the sad truth that I see, especially when conversations like these are happening.

We need a little less hatred, and a lot more education.