5 mOst ExpEnsIvE AddIctIOns!

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, HOMIE!!!

For those of you who don't know, my cat's name is HOMIE!. And it usually takes a little cAtnIp to get him to at least THINK outside the box.

Anyway, today I wanna talk about thE 5 mOst ExpEnsIvE AddIctIOns:


And ironically on this st. pAtrIck's dAy wEEkEnd, the MOST expensive addiction is Alcohol, w/ an estimated annual cost of $166 BILLION! Now, I know this is a sensitive subject for A LOT of people out there. And without a doubt, alcohol and I are very, very fond of one another. I had some of the bEst and dEfInItEly thE wOrst experiences of my life UndEr thE InflUEncE. I started drInkIn' at a pretty young age, and although my consumption has definitely decreased over the years, there was never a time that I can remember where I didn't drink ANYTHING for longer than a year or two. We're talking probably a span of 15-16 years (half of my life); and strangely I've never considered myself dependent on alcohol. Hmmmm...? I have thought of completely quitting as a goal. sUch A dIlEmma!

How about this? ...LET'S ELECT SOMEONE WHO WILL MAKE ALCOHOL ILLEGAL!!!

The 2nd most expensive addiction is SMOKING, estimated $157 BILLION ANNUAL COST!


Excuse me if it sounds like I'm taking these personally, but hopefully we can get to one that I'm not contributing to. AAAAHH! So this one is even more personal than the drinking because I'm cUrrEntlY At wAR wIth nEwpOrts! I haven't had a puff since the first week of January! This is a battle I've had many times before, BUT this time, as you noticed, I referred to it as a WAR. And I say that confidently because this time I had the mEntAl wAkEUp cAll!

This story can be confirmed by thIs gUY......but the first day of my quit-smoking-struggle, I was TAKEN to a few bars and I didn't pay for one drink, but I had a lot to drink!!! And I was even voicing my concern to this non-smoking group of unsensitive, peer pressure-applying, unsupportive, drink buyers...but my words fell upon deaf ears. MORAL OF THE STORY: I DIDN'T SMOKE! thIs AlsO hElps! I'll keep you updated...



The number THREE spot also hits pretty close to home. DRUGS! Let's try to look at this at a very basic level. Besides the thE wAr On tErrOr, the WAR ON DRUGS is the most ridiculous idea ever created. It's a great POLITICAL strategy! And executed beautifully I must add. WOW! Drugs are a part of OUR culture! That's what happens when a government recruits the best scientists from EVERY country in the world, and has a pOpUlAtIOn Of OvEr 300 mIllIOn, of which the bottom 1/3 is slowly being exterminated by various physical, mental, economic, etc., experiments and studies. AND DRUGS ARE A BIG PART OF THIS!!! I guess my biggest frustration when it comes to drugs is the hypocrisy involved. Don't get me started on prEscrIptIOn drUgs...and that whole mess! Even if we ignore HOW drugs get in the country, WHERE they end up, WHEN they're available (usually kinda tuff around election time, I've heard), we're left with the WHO and WHY!

WE SHOULDN'T HAVE PLACES IN OUR COUNTRY WHERE IT'S EASIER (SOMETIMES CHEAPER) TO GET DRUGS THAN FOOD!!! This is such a SAD and DISHEARTENING subject. Amazingly, it took us till the 3rd spot to come to a partially ILLEGAL addiction.

NUMBER 4: OVEREATING($107 BILLION)



The mere existence of the chart above is CRAZY! Add to that, ESPN televises these "competitions(?)" now! People are being rewarded for THIS! The direction MY FINGER is pointing on this one is fAst fOOd and vIdEO gAmEs Who knows what's in fast food? YOU?

With all that being said, I must admit that I am yet again contributing to the list. For me though, it's more LACK OF EXERCISE than OVEREATING. But I gotta plan for that too. With the weather trying to break into spring here in the NORTHEAST, my plan is to run the track around my complex on Monday and Wednesday mornings before I go to work. In the meantime, I'll be playing basketball Fridays, 4:30-6:00. AND WHAT ABOUT YOU? START HERE!

I COULDN'T RESIST THIS PIC! But #5 is GAMBLING! And I can honestly say, I've never had a close affiliation with the gambling community! For me, it never went any further than some scratch-offs or a MARCH MADNESS bracket @ work!

MY STANCE AS OF 3-18-2007:
(ON A SCALE OF 1-5, 5 = QUIT, 1 = IGNORANTLY LOVIN' IT)

1) ALCOHOL: 3, Cutting down, but I'm lOvIn' thIs shIt rIght nOw!
2) SMOKING: 4.8
3) DRUGS: 1
4) OVEREATING: 4
5) GAMBLING: 5

CHECK YOURSELF! IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! PEACE!

mOnEy!

Hello all! Today's random rambling is gonna be about $MONEY$ But before I get into that, I'd like to pay respects to the dollar above. I actually ordered A LOT of these, so if you want one let me know. Anyway...I found them on this site when I was researching for a paper I HAD to write for a Philosophy class back in 2003, titled "The United States Government and Cocaine." But to make a long story short, this guy Michael C. Ruppert was the one who blew the whistle on the CIA for introducing crAck cOcAInE to South Central Los Angeles in the 80's. And it's fact that said area (along with MILLIONS of other cities) has not yet recovered from the aftermath. And what I got a much better understanding of was what the root cause of this was. Now, I'm sure we all heard of this guy OLLIE NORTH, but not sure why. Well, I'm old, I mean WISE, enough to remember back in the 80's when this fool was on TV all the time...and if you are as WISE as I, you remember he was in court more than thE jUIcE. Bottom line on this: Ollie & R-Double sold drugs to Americans to fund a WAR!

..">

I'm proud to say that I actually took the picture above. And even though the money wasn't mine, I did have it under my command. I guess I was kinda holding it for the Air Force. But the point of all this is that holding and having control over that much money was as powerful, if not more, than carrying a gun. Both ways too...the way I felt personally, and the way people treated me in return...VERY POWERFUL!

As we all know, the amount of $MONEY$ we have dictates what kind of life we can have in a Capitalist Economy. And doesn't it suck the more you make the more taxes you "have" to pay? That's where I wanna pause for a second...

Does EVERYBODY remember the Boston Tea Party? Well, if you're a little too WISE to remember, it was about being taxed without any representation. Kinda like, "FUCK YOU, PAY ME!" The way I see it, in order to prosper in a capitalist society you need as much cash as possible. And letting the government hold a couple g's of your money all year without paying you any interest is not the right decision. Here's just 2 reasons why: 1) when you owe taxes, YOU'RE PAYING INTEREST on that starting April 16 every year. NO NEGOTIATION! 2) they ARE gaining interest on your money AND funding wars, AND paying companies like THESE no-bid contracts for jobs American Servicemen (and women) used to do. And on top of that, pay the contractors 3-4X as much as the soldiers, marines, airmen, and sea-men <---whY I wOUld nEvEr jOIn thE nAvY--->...oh yeah, they work right beside them doing the same jobs. If that's not supporting the troops...WHOA!---that was a rant...I wanna try & keep this Random Rambling RANTLESS...

...back to the point...use this IRS CALCULATOR to get your W-4 correct. This is the money you need to be saving for your RETIREMENT! Because let's face it, WE'RE NOT GONNA GET SOCIAL SECURITY PERIOD! A very common mistake made by people like me (and probably you too to some extent) is we feel that if we can't put a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT in some sort of savings, then we'll wait 'till we can and put NOTHING away right NOW. TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

BUT, check this out...TIME is far more valuable than money. cOmE hErE, I'll prOvE It...

To those who know me best, this will come as a big shock...BUT I have to actually give some credit where it is due. In 2003, YOUR government not only InvAdEd IrAq On mY 7th yEAr AIr fOrcE AnniversArY, but also did something good. They established the US Financial Literacy & Educational Commission, and their site is excellent for those of you who are not as fascinated with numbers as I. Check it out! GET IN THE KNOW!

And since this is such a rare happening, I might as well have the lightening strike twice. Another kudo for the GOV'T/IRS: sOmEthIng fOr thOsE Of yOU thAt wAnt tO stArt sOmEthIng fOr thE bAbIEs' cOllEgE and get a TAX BREAK at the same time. This is an EDUCATIONAL TRUST that you can switch over to anyone in your family to use for education costs, including ROOM AND BOARD (over half of total costs). So PLEASE start saving NOW...

I'd love to sit in front of this computer ALL DAY, but that wouldn't be right. I do have other things that need tending to. So I'll leave you with this sUpEr nEws!

tIll nExt tImE...

rElIgIOn!

What's up, ya'll?! I sit here writing this listening to B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) by GZA, while millions of people are getting ready to go to church and practice his or her RELIGION. For some odd (or intentional) reason I was checking out AlEx grEY's wEb sItE. this morning. DISCLAIMER: If you like art and don't know him, check him out. Anyway, the cUrrEnt prOfIlE pIc is from Mr Grey and profiled under my TV section.

So the point of all that is this...RELIGION is a very complicated and complex thing. VERY COMPLEX AND COMPLICATED!!! Before I get too far on this subject, I just wanna let everybody know my stance because I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings when it comes to their beliefs. But I am an outsider to most because I wasn't brought up anywhere near ANY church. Which if you think about it, kind of voids any chance of a debate without bias from the side that was brought up around, in, or AS the church. And I can confidently say that because if you don't know about something, or only hear about it from someone else, there's no emotional connection (or fear) to it. And that's kind of the elementary difference; because once you add the saturation of "what a good person is supposed to say, do etc., etc.", that churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and whatever other house of HIGHer whatever undeniably does, it kind of overwhelms the balanced scales. I don't like to use the word PROGRAMMING loosely, so I won't. But looking from the outside in, gives me a chance to objectively observe and analyze human habits. And let's face it, CHRISTIANS are not a small group of people. And that makes it that much easier to see a consistent pattern of behavior. AND I'M NOT HATIN'!

...really I'm not. There are ALWAYS GONNA BE EXTEMISTS. I understand that. What I'm interested in is the PURPOSE of religion. Higher Beings, Spirituality, Gods, Metaphysics--I'm cool with all of that. It's the actual organizing of the people and the influence over GENERATIONS of humans' minds. It's very powerful; and unfortunately history has shown us that RELIGION and WAR are very, very fond of each other.

WORLD MATHEMATICS:
Religion + War = Money

Money and Power are synonymous. And how rich do you think George Bush is? Either one? And this is the man who said that God appointed him President! And you know, I believe him; because I know he didn't get the votes. So tell me...could it be possible that FEAR caused by ONE'S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS trumps ALL other layers of reasonable and potential thought? Huh, you say? Then why do so many not care about the Iraq War? The TROOPS, for God's sake! Or how about global warming?

OK, so these issues are too big for one person to make a difference, right? Well, what about what the PATRIOT ACT and THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006 have done to your personal rights. HABEAS CORPUS ACT OF 1679 IS GONE!!! If you don't know how real that is, get your Habeas Corpus-game up!

Please someone help me make sense of any of this. I feel confident in saying that I've seen more of the world than the average person. And on top of that, I've seen the majority of these places at the resident-level. Not just the tourist spots. I've been IN PEOPLE'S HOMES in Mozambique, Panama, Germany, and England. That's some serious access to different cultures. And there's DEFINITELY a spiritual connection between you and the people you "click" with. Even if you don't speak the same language.

So tell me what, who, where, when, why YOU believe in. And most importantly let me know why your way is THE WAY...



P.L.U.R.,
zAy