Halfyway Point of MLB season, Healthcare Reform Bill, and other odd tidbits

Well this is my first post in a while and I like how I can pick up right where I left off- talking about baseball.





The last time I posted was at the beginning of spring training and so I made some picks of who I thought would do well this season, and I find that its onlty fitting that I look at those predictions and see how close(or far) I am from being right





Lets Start with the NL.... My favorite League, solely because it doesnt have the DH...





East- I had predicted Mets





Now: 4th in divison, behind marlins, braves and phillies, even though I hate the Mets I am pretty dissapointed that there this far back and this bad... I know they've been racked with injury but the fact that many people at the beginning of the season had predicted them to be a World Series contender are probably just as disappointed as I am right now... K-Rod is not putting up his usual numbers by far and JJ Putz is less than impressive.... Beltran, Reyes and Delgaldo are on the DL....not to mention that streak of mental errors that cost them games a couple weeks ago.... sounds like a year to forget for the Mets





Central- I had predicted Cubs





Now: First in the division. Barely. Maybe .5-1 game lead if that. Somehow ahead of the Cardinals who had been red hot for a while, with Puljos looking like he could win the triple crown.... I really thought that I would see more of them this year... With the offseason addition of Milton Bradley alot of people thought that they would make a lot of noise in the division in the first half.... They, by far have been on a rollercoaster ride throughout the season. Ended the first month right where they are now.. about 1 game in first place, then May and June they stumbled and they are picking it back up in July where they have climbed to the top. Most of the stumbling has been caused by Ararmis Ramirez and Soriano being on the DL and Derek Lee not putting up his usual numbers





West- I had Predicted Dodgers





Now: Dodgers right where I predicted them... Best record in baseball keep riding that momentum from last season.... although I would have not have seen the whole Manny getting suspended for taking womens pills for hormones but other than that their offense has been clicking, Eithier was on my fantasy team for a while and was racking up point.. not to add the fact that Billingsley has certainly replaced that hole that was left by Lowe leaivng for Atlanta.....


Wild Card- I had Predicted Atlanta



Now: Eh not so bad... 4th in the standings and 3.5 games out thanks to a red hot July... hope my bravos can keep this hot streak alive... I'm just mad that Chipper and McCann are only batting .290 and .306 repsectively...



AL Now... Stupid DH



East- I had predicted Rays

Now- I feel dumb... New York has been doing a lot better than I expected and Boston is doing great to even though Smoltz is like 2-6 for them... I really though they would ride the momentum into this season like the Dodgers... but then again they aren't home to Mannywood



Central-I had predicted Twins

Now Kinda feel dumb... Never though the Tigers would be ahead in the division this season, thought Mauer would do good.. but not this good. Also didnt really thing the Sox would be contenders but they are, some say this is a soft division but I think the central will be really fun to watch as the season winds down... both central divisons will be for a matter of fact...



West- I had predicted Angel



Now- Right again... but not as good as I had thought also didnt think that the Rangers would be this good too and be right on there ass(only 2.5 games out) and Hamilton has spent half the year on the DL.. no wonder Kinsler was an All Star... If they don't make it in to the Wild Card this year.. they could win the division next year. And speaking of the Rangers, their batting coach is officailly the best one in baseball... He turned Andruw Jones from a .190 I'm going to try to turn on everything and pull it so I can be a power hitter, to a I'm just going to swing and make solid contact hitter which he used to be in Atlanta but not anymore...



AL Wild Card- I had predicted Oakland



Now- Once again I feel dumb. Matt Holiday was suppose to help Oakland, not take them to the cellar of the AL West then get traded to the Cards.... I mean they had offense problems last year but when they added Giambi and Holliday, that should've been fixed.. for me as a player this would've been a bad year... get some hot bats on our lineup, get all hyped up for a decent year and maybe a playoff run and then end up in the cellar... man that would be tough to play the rest of the season like that... oh well its baseball theres always next year.. maybe they could add Puljos

Anyways moving from baseball and going to the NFL now

I am pumped for the start of the season to watch my Panthers dominate and for fantasy football, which I am also going to dominate

My starting lineup for Fantasy Football

QB- Jay Cutler

RB- Adrian Peterson

RB- Clinton Portis

RB/WR- Pierre Thomas

WR- Steve Smith

WR- Wes Welker

TE- Tony Scheffer(probably going to trade)

Defense- Ravens

K- Kris Brown

So I've got a pretty damn good lineup and I'm ready to do work

Now moving to my next point in the NFL....

The whole Dante Stallworth thing

Its honestly messed up

Stallworth kills a man, gets 30 days in jail and ends up only serving 30 of them...? In a STATE prison

Remember now, he killed a man because he was driving under the influence

Last year Michael Vick pleads guilty to federal dogfighting chrarges and spends 23 months in a FEDERAL prison

Did I mention Stallworth killed a man???

So your telling me I could go get drunk right now, drive around, hit and kill a person and only spend 30 days in jail for it while someone who runs a dogfighting ring and/or shoots themselves in the leg at a nightclub will do more time in the slammer than I will?

And they say celebs don't get off easily

I do remember hearing something about Stallworth actually KILLING someone

Put I guess PETA is taking over now since Killing Dogs>Killing People in the criminal world

What has our world come to?

Speaking of stuff like this I hear the Healthcare reform bill is close to being signed.

Honestly, anyone supports this you are pretty God damn stupid

Do you even know what this is going to do to our healthcare?

Yes I know it'll be free healthcare but do you know what our "free healthcare" will be?

I'm going to paint you a picture

Imagine one of those free Walgreens clinics

Now picture that filled with people

And doctors who don't care about you personally

Just trying to get through the hundreds of people who need healthcare

And also expect to wait about an hour in line for a 20- 30 minute appointment

Sounds like some pretty bad change to me

Look here's the thing

I do believe that everyone should have some sort of healthcare

But I also believe if you live in the Middle to Upper class like I do then you shouldn't have to have your healthcare cut down so it can be like the people who can't afford to go to a doctors office or who can't afford healthcare.

In a capitalist society not everyone is going to make a ton of money, theres going to be the lower, middle, and upper class

And thanks to Mr Obama now I have to sacrifice my healthcare because the lower class people are complaining that they don't get enough Healthcare like I do

There's a reason we have doctor's offices and then those stupid free clinics

To me I'm willing to pay a decent amount of money to be able to go to a doctor's office where I know they have state of the art equipment for treating illnesses

Theres a reason why America is called the land of oppurtunity

YOU

YES YOU

YOU have an oppurtunity to make a good living and afford nice things and to live comfortably not just sit around at a minimum wage job and complain that its the government's fault because your only making 20,000 a year, and if we just hike up the minumum wage, thats just going to hurt the jobless rate

But thats a discussion for a diferent day

~Jackson

Imperialism and Russia

Well I came home sick from school and I had a long time to think about this post...



Lets begin then



Today in History before I left we talked about Imperialism and got on the topic of the US foreign policy.



Thats a tought thing to think about if your the president



Because if your a major world superpower like us should you always help smaller countries out because your most advance or will you be viewed as a bully if you continue to get involved in foreign affairs.....



Also just to get off topic...

I watched this video called "loose change" on Youtube you all should check it out sometime(if you really want to get fired up) its over an hour long so make sure you have time to devote to it....

Anyway

This kid tried to prove or tries to get us to think that the 911 attacks were actually set up by our government just for the sole reason for us to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

ARE YOU *^%*@* KIDDING ME?

To not agree with the government or Bush or anything for that matter is one thing but to believe and want people to believe that your country is responsible for the death of almost 3000 people? This kid should honestly go in for a brain scan and a drug test.

Ok another thing

Some idiots (idiot historians) are now trying to say that we might go into a second cold war with Russia because tensions are starting to build with them and for some reason they think that soon we will again have nuclear warheads pointed at each other ready to fire, almost like an exact repeat of 50 years ago

This again is also a load of bull

For one the only reason that happened is because at that time nuclear weapons were beginning to be massed produced so neither country knew how to handle or deal with countries making them and second, us and Russia have been tense for quite awhile now I don't know how all of a sudden this stuff could turn south

Or more south...

And now the President of Russia has made this prophecy/prediction that the US will fall in the next 10 years and no longer be a world superpower

Interesting....

I mean the US, compared to other countries like Russia, France, Germany, Japan, China is quite young and many people think that we are almost still like a "teenager country" you know trying to establish our identity. But the interesting this is about this "prediction" is that the US is the only major empire to not have fallen.....

I mean maybe falling as an empire is like an initiation so once you go through that you will then be considered one of the "older countries"

But thats scary to think about

To know that maybe one day your republic may fall and the US could be tossed into total anarchy...

Remind me when that is so I can move

On another note, I am just going to comment briefly on the Somali pirate thing

WHY WEREN"T THE NAVY SEALs BROUGHT IN EARLIER???

I listened to Neal Boortz the day that is happened and he said and I quote, "this is what Navy SEALs are for"

In my personal opinion Navy SEALs> Rouge Somali pirates

Just saying

This is how I imagined it going down

*A room filled with hostages tied up somali pirates standing by the doors holding guns looking alert*

*Lights suddenly go out*

*3 gun shots*

*Muffled yells*

*Quick scuffle*

*Lights flip back on, pirates lay dead with hostages released and footprints out the door with a note on the floor with the words, "your welcome" scribbled on it.

Thats how it should've gone down

OK on a more positive note

ITS BASEBALL SEASON!!!!!!

Time for my picks

OK

NL first since it s my favorite league

EAST- Mets finally stop choking and make it in

CENTRAL- Cubs

WEST- Dodgers ride momentum from last season and make it in again

WILD CARD- Braves get in with help from a completely new rotation and young bats

NL WINNER- Cubs

AL NOW

EAST- Rays get hot again, make it in

CENTRAL- Twins, with talent from Justin Morneau and other fine players win this tight divison

WEST- Angels get in again, almost taking division by storm with their stacked lineup

WILD CARD- Athletics (sorry Boston and New York another year of failure)

AL WINNER- TWINS(surprise)

WORLD SERIES
CUBS over TWINS in 6, snapped the "curse"
Hey if the Red Sox snapped the "curse" so can the Cubs

Ok well thats all for tonight, I'm going to try to get on here more often

~Jackson~

First Post in Almost a Month

So this is the first post in a while, its been almost a month

Thats awhile

Seriously

I think about posting something new when I get bored, but never really get around to it.... Just get sidetracked I guess....

I've started reading the FairTax Book by Neal Boortz which is really good.

REALLY good

It talks about this plan, which is actually a bill currently before Congress, thats been floating around for quite awhile, that proposes we scrap income taxes, (which we really should) and just up the sales tax to something high(ex: from 6% to 25%) and fund the governement that way

And I also like it because it means that government will probably start spending a lot less, which I like.

I mean it is really fair

Think about it

Everything you can buy is taxed

So everyone will have to pay taxes,

But some more than others

For instance, if we implement the fair tax, then everyone, rich or poor who has to buy groceries will pay the goverment 25% of every dollar(yes thats a quarter every dollar) because you need food and groceries to surivive, but on the other hand, maybe some people will go out and spend a lot of money because they make more than other people, so they will pay more taxes but some people will go and save money and thus pay less taxes.

I'm also stuck about the issue of monetary policy

I really don't like the idea of a centralized bank printing all our money which in extreme cases could lead to hyperinflation, but I stil to this day, do not understand how the gold standard would work if we implemented it and I've read about it alot. And not to contradict myself, and this may sound really dumb or like I'm a big hyprocrite, but I would rather pay things in paper dollars instead of gold coins..... I'm still stuck on this issue, so if anyone out there reading this right now, has any insight or information to give please comment or follow, or both.

Anyways

My weekend

Friday hung out with some friends and watched Lakeview Terrace which was really good, still haven't finished it
Saturday worked all day at Kroger (4-11)
Sunday say Knowing which is a really weird movie, I mean it is enteraining but I wouldn't see it again or waste 20 bucks on the DVD

Well off to do my state income taxes and watch 24

~Jackson~

Wow I'm tired...

I've had a long day.....

I had to be at work at 7 in the morning and I got to leave at 11 which isn't too bad because I don't have to deal with the after church crowd, they're a pain in the ass to work with(I work at Kroger if you don't already know.)

But the thing that sucks is that I got only 3-4 hours of sleep last night. I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 1 and could not fall back to sleep until 4:30 or 5 and then I had to get up at 6:30 to get ready for work. When I got there I downed like 3 red bulls. Those kept me going until about 10:30 and then I started crashing..... When I got home I laid on my couch and took a solid 2 hour cat nap.

Then I woke up and went over to my friend Zach's house which was really cool. He was 4 horses, 4 big dogs, 1 little dog, and 3 cats (he lives on a farm) The horses were cool, I fed them hay and petted them, it was pretty tight, I can't remember the last time I was around horses I think it was back in like 3rd grade when I went to this summer camp for a week......

Anyways....

So then me, him and two other friends, somehow got roped in to helping my friend paint her room purple which was a bitch. I mean, yeah it was fun, but moving all the stuff and then painting, which by the way is OK its not the worst job in the world, but after you work in the morning and thne paint for like 3 hours that tires you out.

As soon as I got home I took a shower, washed all the paint off of me and as soon as a laid down on the couch I felt relaxed and tired and then I realized.... I've had a hell of a day.

I'm about to go watch the World Baseball Classic, USA plays Venezula I think, I hoped I spelled that right....

A little note to what I wrote yesterday, did you know that during the Civil War, the North faced inflation by 80% and the South had inflation at 9000%.

Thats insane

Imagine if that happened here

It could

Not by that extent but maybe somewhere close to that.....

I mean with the government just printing out all this money by the billions it could

Which is just what we need..... psych

Really its dangerous to have the government just printing out money which is why I believe our monetary system needs a complete overhaul.

And using all that paper is a waste of trees

Oh speaking of the economy, I got a kick out of this.....

Turns out Global Warming is false...

So suck it Al Gore

Basically, the satellite that had been collecting data for the temp, winds etc in our atmosphere in outer space has been malfunctioning and our earth, some scientists say is actually cooling down, not heating up

Which makes me laugh

Hahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
ahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahhahaahah'
ahahahhaahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaha
ahahahahahhahhahahaahahahahaaahahaahhahahahhahahhaahahahhahaha

I wonder what Mr. Vice President Manbearpig has to say to that, (yes I just made a South Park reference)

But I still believe, with all this pollution we are hurting the earth, but I have never believed in Global Warming.....

Ok well off to watch some baseball, eat and go to bed.

24 on tomorrow yeah!!!

~Jackson~

Wow, been a while

So its been a while since I've last been on here.....

Anyways, today I went to work for almost 7 hours, and trust me spending 7 hours at Kroger is not fun haha

Got home, pretty much beat, decided to check up on the blog and low and behold I have some people following and commenting.

Awesome!

So I know this is going to going to shake up things and spark up controversy but I am going to talk about the Civil War and Lincoln

So lets begin...

Turns out that the Civil War was not fought over slavery, it was actually fought over states right's. Which is in the Constitution, so basically, the Union was taking away rights given out in the constitution.

Also another interesting fact, the US was the only country to get rid of slavery with violence. A lot of experts and historians has suggested that Lincoln should've paid the southerners Xmillions of dollars for every slave and then freed them and then tried to make a compromise but I don't understand that because then the south could've just taken that money, bought more slaves form Africa and the process would've just kept on going..... and the only one who would really benefit from it would've been Africa I guess.... or no one for that matter......

Also, to me Lincoln is one of the worst presidents of all time. Who was the best you ask

Thomas Jefferson

Theres and old quote that says "the best kind of government is the one who governs the least" and he did govern the least.

We need to figure out his tax plan.

He cut taxes and somehow also cut the national debt almost in half.

Which is good.

He also revoked laws that he saw as unconstitutional and therefore protected the consitution which is in the Presidental Inaguration speech

Speaking of loweing taxes....

I have been thinking alot about taxes and I do like the idea of the Fair Tax.

I mean it is fair....

The government stops all income taxes.

The national sales tax goes from 6%-25% to balance it.

Since people now have that extra money they can afford more and therefore more money is in the economy.

Also, if you don't spend a lot of money then you'll won't pay much taxes because you'll won't buy that much and no filing taxes will be a lot easier since it won't be so complicated.

And the part for small businesses(99% of the economy by the way) since the sales tax is raised, they will get more money and be able to hopefully compete with those Mega-Lo Marts.

Anyways back to Lincoln

If you watch the movie Glory in one scene Robert E Lee is offered the job of general of the union army and he denies it saying that, "I never though I'd see the day when the President would raise an army to attack his own country"

Which is kinda what Lincoln did.

I mean why could'nt they just talk things out and hell, if the south wants to seceed let them seceed dammit. The North's economy was 5 times greater than the south and they would've realized it and people have written books on how the south didn't realize how bad an investment a slave was at that time. And I'm pretty sure once they did, they would've gotten rid of slaves and then the north would've happily brought them back into the Union.

But think about if they were allowed to secceed, what would be the mindset of the people of the south?

They would've all had the mindset that if you don't agree with the government find a group of people who don't either and split this would've made history very interesting...... maybe we would've had like 8 different countries now.....

Oh well, who knows.....

~Jackson~

So.......

So I don't really know what to call this post, so I'm just going to tell you about my day

Went to school, boring until Physical Conditioning, we played handball and my team elected to put me in as goalie, which proved that I have absolutely no coordination skills what so ever

Haha

After school hung out with some friends and then came home around 8 and talked with my family and we decided that my wisdom tooth surgery will have to be rescheduled.

Thank God

I mean I know that it has to be done sometime in my life but.... it was scheduled for next friday and I was really dreading it I mean REALLY dreading it

I hate needles, I can't stand the sight of them and thats exactly what gets me creeped out

I mean its only a prick but for some reason I just can't stand the sight of them

Anyways

So I was looking at the news articles off of Yahoo! (its my homepage) and I have noticed that the media keeps following the mother who had 8 kids at once around..

I mean obsessed or what?!!!

Like if i was this woman and I just popped eight kids out and the media was following me around I would shoot them in the face with a shotgun

Not Kidding

Yes I am

But seriously, this is whats wrong with America's economy, our workers are out following stupid stories, I mean its really neat and all and interesting but honestly, they've dragged this out wayyyyyy to much kinda like the Barry Bonds saga or the Jon Benet Ramsey thing

Well tomorrow theres a food day in psychology which I'm looking forward to and other than that its the weekend and I have actually made plans in advance, which is really rare if you know me. I just get home on a friday afternoon, throw ym bookbag to the side of the room and start calling people to see if they can hang

Ok well off to do homework

~Jackson~

Rights?

So today in US History we were discussing the Bill of Rights and I had a crazy thought that i feel like expanding on

All the rights that the bills outlines, are those all of our rights, I mean theres only 10

And really if you think about it, would people really get together and layout a list of rights that they as a government entitles to the people who live in the country.

But, if we follow the ideas of John Locke, which most of the Declaration of Indepence is based off of, then we are entitled to three rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Which we could expand on

But to think that only the Bill of Rights is limited to just 10, I mean the last one says that you are entitiled to more rights than listed but if you think about it, when people think rights, they usually just think the Bill of Rights, which they think outlines the only rights that people have.

I like questioning the government

Freedom of speech

1st amendment

Hehe


~Jackson~