Yeah, I know Ben Laden is dead. Good riddance. Now, on with other things.
Have the rest of you noticed that a lot of stuff has been showing up in your inboxes over and over again. Most of it is stuff that sounds good. If you don’t stop and think about it, but lets face it, whose got time to do that. Well, a friend of mine did when I sent her the one about that proposed 28th amendment to the constitution just for grins. I figured if there was anything hinky about it, that she’d jump on it and she did. She sent me the following link: http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamedment.asp
Why am I passing this on to you? Because first of all this thing is taking up way to much space in our inboxes and our minds. Secondly, it’s mostly wrong. Yes, it is a proposed 28th amendment to the constitution, but hey, I could start one circulating saying that men should be denied high office because they think about sex so often. That would also be a proposed 28th amendment because the last actual amendment was the 27th one. So any amendment proposed now will of course be the proposed 28th amendment.
Snopes goes on to point out however that just about all of the rest is, well, not true. This is stuff we should know, but it just hasn’t been sexy enough to make it onto the nightly news or you tube I guess. The page on Snopes goes into more detail but to summarize: Members of Congress can NOT retire with full pay after 1 term, they do have to pay into social security (the reason most of them get so much more out of it is they make so much more money than most of us anyway!), they are NOT exempt from sexual harassment laws, nor did they try to exempt themselves from that healthcare legislation everyone is so upset about. Snopes even quotes the section of that legislation that says the members of Congress and their staff will only have access to plans created by the bill or offered through the exchanges it establishes.
Dang. Sort of busts that indignation bubble don’t it.
Don’t worry. We can still get all upset about how most of those guys and gals in DC are so rich to begin with and only seem to get richer. Then there’s that new ruling by the Supreme Court that lets big business make whatever donations they want to folks running for office. Sort of gives the impression that our democracy is now for sale to the highest bidder. After all, the same folks that convince us all to buy the ‘right’ kind of deodorant or toothpaste can also convince us to vote for the ‘right’ candidate, and all those big bucks can buy a lot of ad space. Then there are also all those folks who can report their opinions as if it were breaking, factual news.
Yeah, I know. This article is nothing BUT opinion. My opinion. Just like it say’s in it’s title. There may be some fact mixed in here but I freely admit that it is probably highly colored by my own skewed little outlook.
However, when I’m reporting on something for this peerless publication you can bet that I will be sticking as close to the facts, and nothing but the facts, as I can.
Unless of course, I get a gig writing advertising copy. Then, like all the others who do that job, I will be singing the praises of whoever is paying me the money to write the tripe that they want me to write. That’s how it works with advertising. I don’t have to believe a word of it. I’d just have to get you to believe it and go buy the product, or cast the vote, or make the donation. Now doesn’t that kinda make you stop and think about a lot of stuff that’s going around the net now days?
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