you shouldn’t care, but you do anyway…

don’t read any of this if you’re looking for entertainment, this is purely for me to vent some frustrations. there may be some funny quips here and there but it’s not worth digging through my personal views on society/politics/news. Trust me.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12583534.htm
I’ll save you the trouble if you don’t feel like clicking: US experts (not sure how that word is defined) have determined that they need a flu czar, backed by authority and cash, to prepare for a possible avian flu epidemic. I’m not eastern-european, so I’m going to use the spelling “tsar” because it looks more exotic.
I don’t want a flu tsar, i don’t want a terror tsar, i don’t want a drug tsar. I want a government that trusts me to be halfway intelligent — we deserve* a government that encourages the timely spread of important information and helps people that need assistance. I don’t want a government spending my (or anyone else’s) money on consultants, or efficiency studies, or any other beauracratic buzzwords. Just use the money to identify and support institutional research (especially prevention-oriented science). Also, use the time and money to develop a distribution system of preventative drugs (which we just learned about) for high-risk individuals. Help subsidize the cost of .22 micron filter masks (influenza’s a relatively large virus) for those that don’t have the money, and give us sufficient warning for manufacturers to increase production, so that people WITH money are able to buy their own!

i’m tired now and i’m pissed:

it exhausts me to listen to augusta radio, i am burnt out on probably 98% of the songs that I hear during the day.

I am beginning to hate talk radio, because it’s just annoying. I don’t think those guys are any more interesting than me, and I sure don’t expect other people to listen to my rambling for 2-3 hours a day. I’m talking about Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and especially the worst, MICHAEL SAVAGE. Even Boortz gets frustrating, although his insensitivity is at least funny. In a vacuum, I probably have lots of political beliefs in common with those guys. But they are terrible on the radio. Simply terrible. They only allow two types of phone calls on the air: the people that disagree with their viewpoint (maybe 1 call per show, and they talk over them the whole time) and sycophants who just repeat the platform of the radio host. Yes, I had to confirm the spelling of sycophant, but you should know that my initial instincts were correct. Boortz is supporting a “tax the spending not the income” tax plan that I used to be 100% in favor of. In theory, I’m a saver and not a big spender. Therefore, a national sales tax works in my favor (in the future when I’m making significantly more than I’m spending). However, I don’t have any income right now (and I’m sure spending a fair amount of money). Regardless, I doubt Rep. Cynthia McKinney is going to be supporting anything that I would support, so until the districts get redrawn I doubt I’ll have much of a voice in Washington.
So here we are: people are wetting their pants about >$300 video iPods to watch $1.99 episodes of Desperate Housewives, and the government doesn’t trust people to do things that a well-adjusted 5 year old knows how to do (cover your nose or mouth when you sneeze or cough, wash your hands before eating).
I’m tired now but there are a few positives coming in the next few weeks:
36 hours until I will be headed back to the ATL
15 days till Katie’s birthday
3 weeks till Charlie Daniels here in Augusta
30 days until Verizon gives me $100 towards a new cell phone (yeah i’ve already picked it out, motorola e815 $99.99 through their online store).
73 days till Christmas (it is the most wonderful time of the year, after all…will I be back for my 8th year at honeybaked? stay tuned)

* or do we deserve it? I personally think I deserve to be treated like an intelligent decision-maker, but then again I was right there lining up at the gas pump when I was worried about a shortage. Mob psychology is a powerful thing and that’s probably why are a republic and NOT a democracy, and why we elect “professional decision makers” on our behalf. However, people still make decisions that are destructive to society, and catastrophes happen that requires some sort of central authority. I just don’t want government expanded when there’s gotta be somebody somewhere that already has “planning for pandemic viral outbreaks” in their job description. You can tell I’m at the end of my rant because I’m calmed down a little. goodnight