Random Rantings

So many things and so little time.

The Chicago Bears. The season began with many dreamers thinking that Chicago was headed to the Super Bowl. The season currently is in the Toilet Bowl. The team Bears fans want to see the Bears beat is the Green Bay Packers. Last Sunday night the Bears gave up 6 touchdown passes in the first half. On more than one reception the Packer receiver was open by more than 10 YARDS. There are many who would like to lay plenty of this blame on Jay Cutler. He does deserve some but come on folks when the defense gives up 42 points in the first half your quarterback had better be Jesus Christ because no one else is going to perform that miracle and get you back in the game. Lots of money was spent on the defensive side of the ball in the off season and it seems to have paid very little in dividends. The past two games the Bears defense has given up over 50 points in each one. It is time for a change in coaching staff starting with the defensive coordinator. Some of the players have not been playing up to their potential. Bench them and play the second or third string guys. Really, could they get beat any worse? Having kinda defended Jay Cutler it seems fitting he get brought down to size by this picture.

Corporations. Every week you seem to hear something about American based corporations complaining about the corporate income tax rate. The highest tax rate for corporations is 35%. This is above the rate for other countries but does not take into account the numerous write offs that mean corporations actually pay a lower rate. When you lump everything together the rate actually paid comes out at about 25% which is below the international average of about 28%. Still as a percentage of GDP the corporate tax rate generates a lower percentage of income now than it did in the 1950's. It reinforces my belief that the small guy is getting screwed over while the big players lobby and make contributions to change the rules to favor their positions.

We recently had one of those elections that folks are so proud to participate in. The Republican party won control of the United States Senate. No big surprise there. What seems surprising is now they want to, if you believe what they are saying on television, work in a bipartisan manner with the President. Really? Do we actually look that stupid? Turns out we do. After all in every state where the voters had a chance to sound off about raising the minimum wage it was supported by a majority. Yet on the same ballot the voters cast ballots to elect or reelect representatives who oppose raising the minimum wage. It appears based on more recent rhetoric from Republicans in Congress that their idea of bipartisan work is for the President to support what they want. If he doesn't then he isn't working with them. Not real good at this but I don't think that's how compromise works. There is however an explanation for our stupidity. We are infected.

Yes dear readers there is a stupidity virus. There is a virus named ATCXC-1 that attacks green algae in lakes and rivers. It can also infect the human brain impairing cognitive activity, learning and memory. It makes the infected person less intelligent. The current small study of 92 healthy adults found that 44% of them had the virus. The participants who had the virus performed 10% worse on cognitive tests and the study showed those infected had lower attention spans. This was also accompanied by a significant decrease in visual processing and visual motor speed. So, those dumb people you deal with out there every day- they are diseased.

Finally for today Facebook bullshit. There seems to be an increasing amount of stupid shit on Facebook. Conservative postings recently have been the worst. For example a WalMart in southern Florida was approached by a group of Muslims from the local area requesting the retailer carry Halal meat. It is meat blessed by the processor and is required as a tenant of faith. The conservative group posting about it asked if retailers should be required to carry Halal meat. The question had nothing really to do with what happened. The WalMart store manager made a decision based on market. If the product sells after being introduced they will continue to sell it. If it does not it will be dropped like other slow or money losers at WalMart. The group that approached WalMart was in no position to force the retailer to do anything. In a similar stupid post the question was asked if butchers should be jailed for selling pork to Muslims. If you took the time to read the article the butcher in question was selling pork to Muslims while claiming it was veal. He was not going to jail for selling pork to Muslims it was for misrepresenting his product. Of course, those commenting on the entries made stupid inappropriate comments about Muslims and spewed their hatred about anything from that religion. What do we expect? Seems we should expect exactly that since like the prior paragraph, they are infected with the stupidity virus. The only safe approach is to avoid stupid people before they infect you.