Alice T. Jenkins (Photo credit: rockcreek)

Here’s the thing

On the right, there are Republicans who believe that government isn’t the solution to the problem. They want to snip government spending, as long as it’s not their pet projects, and advocate lower taxes for billionaires a.k.a. Congressmen.

On the left, there are Democrats who believe that government is the solution to the problem, want to raise taxes on the 1%, and spend money on their pet projects.

The argument against taxing the 1%.

Why should I pay taxes when government will just misspend it?

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Image by Images_of_Money via Flickr

I’m one of the casualties of financial downsizing.

Thanks to the housing bubble, Wall Street’s credit default swaps, and money pissed away on the Iraq War, which sent the country on a trip down the rabbit hole in search of weapons of mass destruction.

To this day, I’m convinced the WMDs were hidden inside Cheney’s pants.

I would be remiss not to thank the lobbyists and special interest groups for helping to solidify the top 1%’s control of the country and its wealth.

With approximately four lobbyists to every Congressman, the “we” in “we the people,” is no longer relevant and should include two e’s instead of one, as “wee the people” no longer wield the power in this democracy that was the founding fathers intent.

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Image via Wikipedia

The sentences that are handed down to people convicted of committing crimes in this country are always a cause for debate as everyone has strong views on the subject of prison terms.

Many of us have been forced to defend a position where we feel that people have either been given too long, or in most cases, too short a sentence. A current cause for debate is the fact that violent criminals can get their sentence reduced by as much as half if they admit their guilt before the case comes to trial.

The feelings that we have when it comes to sentences which we feel are too short is naturally one of disgust, anger and frustration, however, thanks to restrictions on court reporting and biased, sensationalised media coverage we often don’t have all the facts and circumstances pertaining to a particular case and the state of mind of the offender.

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Image by lalunablanca via Flickr

Not only is America suffering from an economic crisis, it’s caught in a vicious cycle, too, caused by the banks that helped fuel the crisis.

After the bottoms fell out of the bank vaults in 2008, because banks approved bad mortgage loans that brokerage firms then sold to their customers as credit default swaps, the banks became tightwads, making it difficult for small businesses and conscientious bill paying Americans to borrow money, thus creating a worse economic crisis and a tidal wave of debt.

To wrap this up in a lovely decorative package, since many banks approved bad loans back in 2008 due to their greed, we, the taxpayers, who had to bail them out, can’t get a loan from the banks we bailed out because the banks are afraid to approve loans to people who loaned them money in the first place. Whew! That was exhausting.

So, the banks got out of debt and are collecting interest on our money, while, we, taxpayers, who had to choke up cash for the loans, are accumulating further debt.

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The travel industry is looking forward to the April glut of Bank Holidays and so are the rest of us!

A number of other factors, not least the royal wedding have encouraged British holiday makers to take holidays abroad this spring. The government said ”Here, have a day off for the royal wedding” and, with clever use of accrued holiday, taking thee days off will give you a break of almost a fortnight. While the government was hoping The Great British Public would stick around and spend Spend SPEND on bunting, Union Flags and cake, many people demonstrated their overarching ambivalence toward the nuptials and booked holidays in other, foreign destinations instead.

When a survey was taken earlier this year of 3,000  travellers 28% said that they would be using the wedding augmented Easter break to go somewhere that they had never been to before. Luke Nathan from Travelsoon, who conducted the survey said: “The news that British travellers are becoming braver in their holiday choices is really a very positive one.” He goes on to point out that many travel companies are sending back figures which show that some destinations are up 180% compared to this time last year.

47% of the holidaymakers said that yes, the state of the economy was a contributing factor in their holiday plans and that they were being careful, looking for cheap deals on online rather than going through traditional high street travel agents. Only 18% of the travellers said that they had booked through the high street retailers, 55% said that they would look for the best deals and discounts by searching online.

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So ITV in their wisdom have decided to bombard us yet again with a show that may be popular with the celebrity hungry public, but not with me…

That’s right “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here” is back on our TVs as of the 14th November, a show where celebrities who have either got a failing career or need to be even more in the public eye, decide they are going to spend time in an Australian jungle doing things that no other “sane” person would even attempt to do.

Before anyone asks, yes I have watched the show and I still think that’s it’s a complete waste of time and money!

I dare say that those “celebrities” and I say that loosely are looking forward to spending time with the comforts they are used to, but the question often arises of, why?

As I mentioned earlier, most of them have usually been out of the limelight for a while and this is a chance for them to get back in the public eye, but to me, I just see the fiasco as completely pointless, not only have we just been put through the pain and suffering of the The X Factor, but now we have to have our TV schedule littered with this dribble. What next the return of Britain’s Got Talent, oh that’s back spring 2011!!!

Ok, I’m steeping on the toes of those that love the The X Factor and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, but come on isn’t it time that TV stations have something fresh and interesting on, and not a bunch on wannabes and has beens prancing around the TV making complete idiots of themselves, obviously not!

So this is the way that TV is going, celebrity everything, just because something has been popular and has a following, doesn’t mean that we all love it, so I’m preparing myself for breakfast shows with “did you see I’m A Celebrity last night?” and “Here’s the latest from the camp” and so on and so forth. Yes it’s on lots, but please, please stop ramming it down our throats everyone 20 minutes!

I have posted before on my blog about these celebrity shows and how much they annoy me, but hey this is the Monday Moan and I have every right to whinge, it’s my blog!

Related articles

• I’m A Celebrity menu is revealed (mirror.co.uk)
• Stacey Solomon: X Factor to I’m a Celebrity? (thejc.com)

Sometimes you may hear some people saying “Young people today, they have no manners!”, but between me and you, the readers of my blog, I’m here to tell you that it’s not just young people who have no manners, it’s also the older generations that seem to have a complete disregard for good manners and polite etiquette.

So, the other day I was out and about, doing my normal amount of window shopping and with stores having doors!, I know you can see where this is going right! (in a Stewie Griffin voice), after walking through the doors, I held them open for an elderly gentlemen, at which point he just walked through and never said a word, not one iota!

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