Oh, you're an expert, then you must be right

I am so sick and tired of people saying that something is true because there is an expert that agrees with their point of view. Or that there is some “official person” that has declared their position valid. It upsets me even more when people think that something is true or use in an argument that the majority of people all agree or conform to some idea. Geez, group consensus, that has never been wrong before. There have been countless instances throughout our history where the majority of people believed something that was later proved to be incorrect. These are just a few examples in the long list of fallacies the majority of the world used to believe true that have been proven wrong: Jesus being the son of God (according to the Jews), gravity, the world being flat, the Greeks and Romans believing in mount Olympus, one race being superior or inferior to other races (and it wasn’t just the Nazis), wearing hats causes baldness, and that frozen yogurt is good for you. Just because and expert says so, or everyone believes the same thing doesn’t mean it’s the truth.
How many of us have seen on TV the introduction of some new “miracle product” advertised that is going to relieve this or be a cure all for that? Then to give their product validity, an expert wearing a lab coat looking very official with the moniker Dr. in front of their name who is acting as their “expert," endorses the product. Who gives a shit? There has been a long-standing joke about this profession. Do you know what they call the guy who finishes dead last in his medical school class? Doctor. Meaning that anyone, whether they are a deserving or not, can still be called a doctor just by graduating. Just like with lawyers, accountants, scientist, and any other profession that requires more years of college. All you have to do is finish the race so to speak and graduate. I’ve watched the Boston Marathon; the guy who finishes the race in 1st place is a lot different then the guy who finishes the race 10 hours later in last. It is impressive to just go out there and do it, but I’m not getting running advice from the last place guy. Just like I am not listening to someone because they are a so-called expert. Colleges and universities are cranking out “experts” on a daily basis based on the amount of money they have spent to obtain their degrees.I also have a problem with polls that are supposed to determine the “pulse of America.” Those polls are no closer to telling me how the rest of America thinks than eating a bag of Skittles is going to let me taste a rainbow. A poll can make a claim just like a bag of candy does, but it doesn’t make it the truth. You don’t know anything about the people being questioned, where they are at, what has transpired to them recently, and the religious, ethnic and economic breakdown of the people being polled. It is as ridiculous as asking 1,500 Americans which color they like better, giving them only 5 colors to choose from, and then wording the findings something like this: “The majority of Americans think yellow is the most offensive color.” First of all the idea of “offensive” was never brought up. Just because people picked yellow the least, doesn’t mean they don’t like it. It means that their favorite is something else. Yellow could just have easily been their second choice, or they could like a multitude of colors that aren’t on the list, plus the survey said to pick their favorite color, not to pick the one they despised the most. But reports based on surveys like this happen all the time. And they are about things that are far more important than favorite colors in an attempt to mislead the public, drum up interest in a story, or to support false claims in order to sway the public over to one opinion from another.Another common fallacy is the use of statistics. The statistics that news organizations print or televise can be so easily manipulated that I don’t understand how anyone can back anything they claim with a straight face and maintain that it has any validity. I just read a report on CNN that had the headline saying that joblessness rates have slowed down. So I clicked the link to enquire within and read the whole article. Well apparently because less people have reported this year that they are jobless to the government, the rate has gone down. Umm, no. That is just faulty thinking. It may be true that less people are reporting to the government that they are jobless this year, but it can be any number of reasons why they aren’t reporting it as frequently. One major reason could be because their unemployment benefits have run out. So they are no longer reporting it, because they can’t make any more claims. Just because the rater of reporting is down, doesn’t mean the rate of joblessness has slowed. That is equivalent to saying that because less people are going to the hospital sickness and accidents resulting in injury are down. Well it could be that, or it could be that people are looking for home remedies or are just battling through their illnesses because the hospitals are too expensive and they can’t afford to go. It also matters about who is funding these experts. Money is what makes the world go round. It is the lifeblood of the country, and as you can see the 1% have made the rest of us pretty anemic. If we have learned anything from the recent GOP circus that has come to town, it is that we live in the United States of Capitalism where money is G-O-D, and capitalism is the sacred cow that must not be touched. Well if money is everything, then the ones with money can buy anything, and they do. How else can you explain the cigarette companies that have hundreds of scientists on their payroll claiming that they there is no empirical evidence that smoking causes cancer? Are you kidding me.?! Okay,sure that sounds about right. Oh yeah, and bullets shot from guns don’t kill people either. It’s the holes that are opened up in their bodies after the bullets go through them that are the cause. Common sense should dictate what the truth is, but have we become so lazy that we will not allow our eyes to see the truth for themselves. Are we going to continue to let these so-called experts piss in our faces with false information only to tell us that it is rain? I’m not claiming to know everything, the origin of man, the vast unknown of space, what women are thinking, or even what happens to the “other” sock in the dryer. I just know that I can think for myself, and that I am smart enough to not be spoon fed shit and told to enjoy it because it was crapped out of an expert.

And of course there are people like Sarah Palin who claim that just being in the vicinity of something makes you an expert. She claimed her expertise on foreign affairs was bolstered by the fact that she could see Russia from Alaska. Hmm, well by that rationale, I am an expert on porcelain because of that time I got food poisoning at Mimi’s Café and spent two days on and kneeling over a toilet. And since toilets are made of porcelain, guess who’s an expert?!

Green, with envy

I woke up early this morning to go for a run when I noticed a chicken crossing the road. Don’t worry, this is not an elaborate set up on the old “chicken crossing the road” joke. No, I really saw a chicken crossing the road. It was so bizarre that is caught me off guard, it was actually fascinating to me since I live in a suburb, not on a farm, near a farm, by a farm, on a street with farm in its name, and there was a chicken crossing the street. I felt like I was in a living Hilights magazine page, you know the little kids magazine with the, “Which of these things doesn’t belong” game. Anyway, I kind of just stood there focused on this chicken, oblivious to everything else happening around me, which wasn’t very much since it was 6 in the morning, and waited to see where it was going. I think the chicken was also out for a morning constitutional around the block, since it kind of just walked accross the street and back. Then it slowly made its way to back to my neighbor's house, who lives 3 doors down from me, and disappeared between the bars in his backyard fence. What the hell man!? Why does my neighbor have a freaking chicken as a pet? Then it dawned on me, he doesn’t have a chicken as a pet, he probably has that hen laying eggs for him in his backyard. That is actually a cool idea, fresh eggs every morning. It’s so much more healthy and humane to do it that way. He is controlling what the chicken is eating thus controlling the nutrients that are going into the eggs he will be consuming. Not to mention he can control how the chicken itself is treated. And, he is saving money and helping out the population of chickens that are abused in these huge industrial chicken factories. That got me really thinking, “What else is this guy doing that is helping out the environment, and helping to reduce his carbon footprint?” I actually didn’t truly care what he was up to, per se, I was actually more concerned about what it was I could be doing to reduce my carbon footprint. Its all fine and good to say that you are going to do something, or to have the knowledge that something needs to be done, but to actually go out and do it, putting your money where your mouth is, well, that is the step I have been needing to take.

So I went on line to do some research to find out exactly what I could do to put up or shut up. I wanted to find out information and find out what was fact and what was fiction about going “green.” And what I discovered is that there are a lot of easy things I can do, besides owning a Prius that can help limit the carbon footprint I am leaving. I want to help the environment, my fellow man, and of course myself to thrive in this overpopulated, over polluted world that we keep trashing. I came up with a list of things that I could do and could easily. I read this quote and it just makes good sense, “Being environmentally-friendly is just good economics”

•Own your own chickens-if you have a back yard or the room on the roof, or space anywhere, you can build a chicken coop, and have hens lay you fresh eggs daily.
•Get to know my local farmers- Find out about community gardens, or you can join a co-op and have local organic produce delivered to your house. Attend farmers markets
•Compost heap-follow the link bellow to help you understand why having one is a good idea, and how easy it can be to make.
http://simplemom.net/how-to-make-a-compost-bin/
•Recycle-take the time to separate your garbage. Try not to throw everything away in one bin and hope that someone else will separate it. A few seconds separating can save a few hundred years of decomposition.
•Plant and sustain a garden-Once you have your compost heap going you can use that soil to help plant your fruit and veggies. If you don’t have a lot of space you can start small and grow your own herbs. Even grow small flowers to brighten up your living spaces. Gardening can be very therapeutic.
•No more bottled water-Do you know how many bottles are in our oceans and in our land fills that will be there long after we are dead? Use a thermos or a reusable bottle. Get a filtration system, or simply use a Brita water filter pitcher. Let’s get rid of the bottle craze. Sure they are convenient now, but when we are suffocating on all the waste, it will not have seemed like such a good idea.
•Dishtowels not paper towels-Buy dishtowels and use them in the kitchen. When they get dirty, you wash them. Every little bit helps, not to mention the money you save on paper towels.
•Buy quality items, not cheap and disposable
•Carry your own grocery bags, reusable-I love my grocery bag, it carries so much more than you would think. And they make ones for your hot and cold items. They carry them at most stores and they cost a buck or maybe 2. What a bargain.
•Natural light-Use your windows for what they were made for, to let light into your house
•Repurpose paper from your printer- Instead of throwing out those sheets that are misprints, or rough drafts (students), you can just flip them over and use the other side as note pads, or doodle pads for you or the kids
•Donate your old clothes, or repurpose them-There are people out there that need our clothes. If you want, do a garage sell. I am lazy and I routinely donate clothes I no longer wear or that don’t fit, stupid tacos, to Goodwill industries. You can turn old towels or t-shirts in to rags for cleaning, or to wash your car. There are all kinds of things you can do.
•Learn to sew-This is for men and women. Learn to repair your clothes. Our generation is the “throw away” generation. When something breaks, or stops working, it somehow finds its way in the trash, instead of trying to fix it. There is nothing wrong with sewing a patch in a pair of ripped jeans, pajamas, or shirts. Maybe it will become trendy again to do that. Who knows? But you are saving money, and saving an old comfy pair of pants that you might yet be willing to part with.

Together we can make the world a better place. Also, stay informed about different bills and proposition that are on the ballot. You should know both the economic, social, and the environmental impact of what you are voting on. Knowledge truly is power. The old TV commercial tag ling is correct, “The more you know…. the farther the Earth will go.” We only have one planet, and you have a choice, so choose wisely.

Happy Birtday Dr. King

My Favorite quotes from a legendary man

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.”

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools”
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you for your strength, for your love, for your compassion, and for your good will so that we may all enjoy a brighter future together. If there is a promise land, I know that you are there. Your sacrifice did not go unnoticed. Your actions will echo in eternity.

The Greatest Mystery Known to Man

Black holes, the discovery of all the species on the planet, the origin of man, proof of a deity; the explanations for all of these things are easier to figure out than to figure out what women are thinking. Rationality would have us believe that men and women’s thought patterns are very closely related to one another. I mean its weird because we are only separated by a single chromosome in the beginning. Yet the idea that there is anything rational about how a woman thinks is faulty in and of itself. Arguably the smartest man on the planet, Steven Hawkins, recently made the claim that women continue to be the universe’s greatest mystery. And that man is a genius. Like when people say, “Well, he’s smart but he’s no rocket scientist.” Yeah, yeah he is, this guy is smarter than rocket scientists, and HE doesn’t understand women.

It reminds me of a joke I heard a while back that demonstrates the irrationality of female thinking. This guy is walking along the beach and he stumbles over something buried in the sand. After he picks himself up, he digs down into the sand to see what caused his tumble. He picks up what appears to be a bottle of some sort, but when he goes to brush the sand away to get a better look at it, the bottle begins to shake violently and without warning smoke starts erupting from all of its orifices. And “POOF,” a genie pops out. The genie declares in a booming voice “You have awoken the most powerful genie in all the world, and as such you have been granted 3 wishes. What will they be?” The guy thinks about it for about a second and then blurts out, “I want a billion dollars.” Poof! But nothing happened. The guy looks around, but sees nothing. The genie instructs him to check his smart phone, and when he does in his bank account is a billion dollars. His next wish is that he is surrounded by lots of hot chicks that are all into him. Poof! There are beautiful bikini clad vixens swarming all over him like he is in a real life AXE commercial. The genie then instructs him to ask for his final wish. The man thinks and thinks and finally says, “You know what, I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, but I am afraid of flying and I hate boats, so what I want you to do is I want you to make me a road from California to Hawaii, so I can travel there whenever I want.” The genie looks at the man and shakes his head, and once again in a deep booming voice bellows, “It is true I am the most powerful genie in all the world, but to take on a feat of that breadth would be near impossible. I would have to secure pylons stretching to the ocean floor that would have to reach miles. The pressure they would be under from the depth of the water is incalculable. The weather in that part of the ocean is unpredictable and waves and currents will constantly threaten to destroy the bridge. Not to mention the amount of concrete necessary to complete a project of that magnitude would be....you know what, just wish for something else.” The man sits down and thinks and thinks and finally says, “Fine, then I’ve always wanted to know what women are thinking.” The genie looks at the man and asks, “Will that be 2 lanes or 4?”

Women have been making headlines recently for doing the crazy shit that women do, which is kind of redundant to say. The most notable headline was Tiger’s ex, once media victim, now eccentric headcase Elin Woods, bought a beach front mansion and had it torn down. Did I mention she paid $12 million dollars for this mansion in Florida. Yep, she definitely deserves money because how can she provide a life for herself and kids without the ability to do frivolous shit like this. Our archaic legal system’s results in action. She claims that there was a termite infestation that required her to demolish the entire house. Well, I think we can take 3 things away from this story. Number one, apparently they don’t make fumigation tents big enough to cover mansions. Second, she is an idiot for spending 12 million dollars on a house that was infested with termites. You might want to do a little legwork before you throw around Tiger’s, err, your money. And third, no matter how much of Tiger’s money she spends, she will never be able to hurt him, she is only making herself seem like a foolish, bitter, scorned woman. I wish her the best of luck, but she has moved from being a victim to one crazy ass bitch who doesn’t’ know the value of money since she didn’t earn one scent of that 200+ million dollars she now has. Dave Chapelle was right when he joked, “Suck a dick [ladies], there’s a future in it.”

Then if that wasn’t enough, this insane mom upstages her son on national television during his press release. Landon Collins who is one of the most sought after defensive back prospects was declaring publicly which school had won his services for the next 4 years. His choices were Alabama and LSU. Well apparently the Tigers boosters promised mom more of what she wanted, because her 18 year old son, made the choice to attend Alabama. And right afterwards mom told the reporters they were still going to talk go Tigers. Your son is now a man lady. If you want him to act like a man and make his own decisions, and respect the women in his life, then you have to stop second guessing him. Rap and the hip-hop lifestyle isn’t what causes misogynistic tendencies in male athletes, it’s the trifling women in their lives starting with their own mothers. It's true that you made him, you gave him life, and raised him. But it's time to let him show you and the world that he learned the lesson you taught him and that he can now make up his own mind and be a man.

I guess it can all be summed up in Jack Nicholson’s famous response in the movie As Good as it Gets when he is asked how he is able to write for his female leads so convincingly and so closely mimic how women think. His answer, “I think about a man, and then take away reason and accountability.” True, concise, poignant. It’s not misogyny, its reality.

Do you see what I see?

When you gaze upon something, do you see it for what it is or for what it could be? Are you looking for what something truly is or are you looking at what that object means to you? We all guilty of looking at the world through our own rose-colored glasses. We assign different meanings to what we see around us according to how they affect us. It is part of the human condition to look at the world through our own preconceived filters. We decipher those sights by adding meanings where there are none, and assigning importance to things that have very little. We are all prejudice even if we think we are not. Our prejudice notions are based upon our experiences, our spiritual belief system, our foundation of knowledge, our upbringing, and the actual physical sights we see. You pour all of that craziness into our mental shakers, give it a good shake, strain it out over a chilled glass, and what you are left with is our perception of the world.

To a Samurai, his sword is an extension of himself, of his ability to dole out justice, it is an instrument to protect the weak and punish the guilty. To the unfortunate adversary of this samurai warrior the sword is an instrument of death. It is an uncompromising biter of flesh, and an ender of life. Both people know that the sword is just a sword, but the meaning we assign to people, objects, and feelings can differ with the way one looks upon it or how it will affect that person. A barking dog can be a warning that someone bad has entered your yard or it could be a constant annoyance to a sleeping neighbor. It could mean the dog it under duress or that the mailman is just making his rounds. To all of these individuals that are present, including the dog itself, the perception for his barking is different.

Perception is the key to understanding what reality and life all about. It is how we see ourselves, others, and the things that we value that are instrumental in creating the idea of who we actually are. If I were to look at new sports car I might see, women, speed, fun, and sex. Where if my mom were to look at the same car she would see frivolous spending, speeding tickets, injury, and possible death. If my friends were to look upon the same thing they might see pompousness, flash, jealousy, or someone trying to impress others. Where as a stranger might see it as a meal ticket, a sweet ride, a person with too much money, or a way to compensate for something I am lacking. No one perception is right or wrong, which is precisely the point. They are all right and they are all wrong, in accordance to whom is doing the looking. One can no more be right about that than if they were to say that the color red is a pretty, or that Coke tastes better than Pepsi.

We all see ourselves differently than how the world perceives us. But it is how we present ourselves to the world that allows for that perception to be altered. If you think you are cool or stylish and carry yourself in that manner, you will eventually be cool and stylish. If you slouch and slump and look like you lack confidence, even if you are a confident individual the world will only see a slumping, slouching loser. Norton Jester offers a more succinct explanation of this phenomenon in his book The Phantom Tollbooth. The main character of the story, Milo meets an interesting man who claims to be the tallest midget, the shortest giant, the skinniest fat person, and the fattest skinny man. When Milo inquires as to how he can be all of these things, the man replies that it is all in the perception of who is viewing you.

Excuse me officer

The police are a welcomed necessity of life in a civilized society. They are charged with keeping order, making sure everyone follows the "rules," and dolling out justice evenly and fairly when people break those rules. Unfortunately for the minorities in America, the police don't seem to do that last thing very often. They rely on their preconceived ideas and prejudices to do their jobs. Couple that with that the fact that a lot of these police officers are assholes or bullies in the first place, and you have a recipe for a volatile situation whenever police and civilians collide. Luckily for us, there is another reality television program that showcases the blatant differences in the way Blacks and Whites are treated by law enforcement. I have been watching this show on G4 called Campus PD, which is like COPS, but a lighter version. I'd compare it to drinking Coke Zero, all the taste, none of the calories. I'm trying to get corporate sponsorship. It kind of reminds me of a version of COPS made for Nickteens. It just shows a bunch of college aged kids and their interactions with the fuzz. These over privileged whiners find themselves in a variety of compromising situations ranging from out of control parties, to drunken bar fights, to underage drinking, drunk in public, drunk driving, and of course drug possession.

You should hear the way these kids talk to the cops. The old adage “a little bit of knowledge is a bad thing” has never been more evident then on this show. They cuss, they bitch, they complain, they quote half known truths about laws, and all the while they are being filmed completely intoxicated and out of control. There is the occasional cool kid, who hooks up with the cool cop, and everything goes smooth and just warnings are issued. But more often than not, the kids turn a mild situation into a full-fledged scene and force these cops to arrest someone who would have otherwise received a situation.
But that is not the issue I have with the show. The problem I have with the show is how minorities are treated. Most of the unwilling participants on the show are students of Caucasian persuasion. And they are the most vocal, the most disrespectful, and get the most passes from the officers. I have seen them underaged, falling down drunk, mouthy, in possession of drugs, and released or just given a citation. Then you have an occasional Black or Hispanic male on the show and the cops lose their freagin minds. Any misspoken word or the slightest infraction is met with the full brunt of the law. It is completely and totally obvious what is going on, and even though there is video proof of the disparity of how Whites and Blacks are treated by the police, no one is willing to admit that there is this discrepancy.

White people live in a bubble where they think they are above the law, while their minority counterparts are afraid of the law. This is not because White people are delusional and minorities are paranoid, it is because it is the truth. It is how the system works. There is a difference in the treatment of people in the eyes of the law. Just as women are treated different than men during a traffic stop. The idea that there are no consequences for their actions is what drives most White people to be so cavalier as to continually do dangerous illegal things like drinking and driving, acting up in front of cops, and using and distributing drugs, while their Black counterparts are going to jail in record numbers because of the bigotry and mistreatment by law enforcement agencies. It is kind of a perceived self-fulfilling prophecy. The cops think that minorities are doing illegal things and busting them for it whether they are or they aren’t. Then once they are in the system, they eventually end up committing these crimes because they now know how and are already guilty of it in the eyes of the law. Jail has turned into college for criminals. I am not advocating don't send people to jail, just make sure they are criminals. Because the truth is that we are turning good people into criminals, and that is the sad reality of what is happening out there.

I think all of this racial profiling is stupid because criminals exist whether they are Black, White, Middle Eastern or Asian. Crime doesn't care what race you are or what God you pray to, and police need to be aware of that and lock up the bad guys and protect the innocent. If they aren't going to be part of the solution, they will continue to be part of the problem.

And justice for all...

The idea that justice is the end result of utilizing the judicial system is a complete and utter fallacy. The truth of the matter is that justice does not exist even in a perfect world. How can one hope to get back a loved one that someone has killed, or how can you replace items that hold emotional, and not monetary value that have been stolen or destroyed? You can’t. All you can hope for is that the guilty party is stopped before they have a chance to do it again. But even that result can’t be guaranteed by the system we have in place. How often do the guilty go free while the innocent become helpless victims of a broken legal system? The guilty in this country run amuck in our justice system. The slick defense attorneys, the defendants, the overworked and under-funded district attorney’s office, the pompous judges, and the laws themselves are all guilty of destroying a system that, like religion could work if it weren’t for man’s ineptitude and corruptibility. But they all play their role in making what seems like a fair and just system on the surface a corrupt and callous bureaucracy that has a blatant disregard for common sense.

There are so many flaws that illustrate the problems inherent to our justice system that to list them all would be an exercise in futility. But there is one shinning example that showcases an egregious error in the reasoning of the judicial system. That is when the bailiff approaches the defendant with a bible and asks him or her to hold their hand on it and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yeah, that’s going to happen, they are on trial for brutally slaying 3 people, or rapping 5 small children, or killing a family of 4 while driving intoxicated, and in the face of those charges they are really going to tell the truth. Did the architects of the judicial framework really believe that by a person holding their hand on a "book" that it would compel criminals to own up to what they have done? Or better yet, these huge corporations that are systematically on trial for cutting corners and as a result, thousands of people are injured and hundreds more left dead. Are they expected to tell the truth when they had already decided that being sued for 20 million was worth the lives lost because the recall would have cost more? These people are criminals. They don’t play by the rules, yet the judicial system makes the assumption that people will be honest and adhere to the honor system. WTF!!? It didn’t work in the third grade, its not going to work in the real world. These people have no scruples. There is no level of depravity that they won’t stoop to in order to come out on top. And to think that they will now take responsibility for whatever atrocities they have committed is beyond asinine.

I have recently had to deal with the justiceless system and have had my chance to see first hand how the atrocities and violations that pervert the system are able to prevail, while glad handing happens behind closed doors that effects the outcome of the trial. And what is worse is that there are supposed to be laws that govern the system that are supposed to protect me from these atrocities. Yet those same laws also allow a judge to do nothing for fear of political retribution. The one thing I have discovered through this whole cumbersome process is that the judicial system doesn’t work. Lawyers are a joke, first and foremost. They exist to pervert the law so that they can charge exorbitant fees to argue over antiquated and some times made up laws. Second, the law only seems to work for those who are constantly in the legal machine. People that are “guilty” of actually doing something wrong and who are committing crimes are the ones who benefit from this ass backwards-legal system that prevails in this country. This is the legal system that found OJ not guilty of killing his wife because a glove didn’t fit. All you have to do is go to any club in LA and you can see thousands of people wearing stuff that doesn’t fit. The innocent people in this world are chewed up and spit out of the legal system more harmed than they were when they entered it.

Here is another example of how the justice system doesn’t work. Haley Barbour the outgoing GOP Mississippi governor pardoned 4 men who were all found guilty of murder as one of his last acts as governor. None of these men were in trials where the convictions were the result of egregious errors. Neither were they all in trials where there was evidence that they were possibly not the guilty party. The only thing these four criminals have in common is that they all used to “work” at the governors mansion. That is right, these four criminals all used to work at the governors mansion. The GOP might as well double as the Catholic clergy. It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines here, this guy was silencing his former lovers, I mean victims, err, employees. This is a travesty not just to the justice system, but to the victims and their surviving family members as well. There is no justification for these pardons and there is nothing this governor can say that can remedy the betrayal that all of these victims are being shown by these murderers’ release.