<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443159381030769228</id><updated>2012-02-16T09:35:51.537-08:00</updated><category term='health care'/><category term='improving education'/><category term='health insurance'/><category term='health care reform'/><category term='college sports'/><category term='MJ Overload'/><category term='self serving politicians'/><category term='Too much Michael Jackson'/><category term='high school sports'/><title type='text'>My Pov Today</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>mypovtoday</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/18139092374820650353</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>3</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443159381030769228.post-414843197635430482</id><published>2009-11-08T11:19:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-11-08T15:52:08.353-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='health care reform'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='health care'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='self serving politicians'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='health insurance'/><title type='text'>We Need Health Care Reform Now!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SvcaCKPBd-I/AAAAAAAAAAk/LN5QSTZb2ew/s1600-h/health-care-reform.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401814902463625186" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SvcaCKPBd-I/AAAAAAAAAAk/LN5QSTZb2ew/s320/health-care-reform.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well I’m going to jump into the deep end and put in my two cents about Health Care reform.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We need it! Now!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know the current bill may not be perfect, however, anything is better than nothing. Remember, we can always refine and perfect it while still saving lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The most vocal opponents seem to be Republicans and they say things like “death panel” and ’we need to start over a do it right” just to stall and frighten us. They should be ashamed!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps it’s the people that would benefit from it that bothers them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It &lt;strong&gt;would not&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;be the Drug and Medical lobbies, the Health Insurance giants, and the HMOs&lt;/strong&gt; who contribute to and support their election and re-election campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It &lt;strong&gt;would be the people&lt;/strong&gt; who could not get or afford insurance and care and certainly cannot contribute big bucks to political campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It &lt;strong&gt;would not be the politicians&lt;/strong&gt; who get free complete medical packages (often for life) at our expense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It &lt;strong&gt;would be the people with sick children&lt;/strong&gt; who have to decide on rent or medication.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s real damn easy to say “lets start over” when you and your family are not at risk for your shameful ass dragging behavior.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps if the politicians who want to “take time to get it right” would opt out of their “sweetheart” benefit packages and be willing to be subject to the situation that so many of the rest us find ourselves in through no fault of our own.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not Very Likely!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then there’s the “Death Panel” thing. What a crock! Apparently they have never had to deal with a HMO for care. They just take their money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Further, see if you can get good medical care for a expensive and/or deadly disease with no insurance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They (the politicians) get covered for pre-existing conditions and everything else so they don’t seem to care whether the rest of us can.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Something I don’t understand is that the big insurance companies all bid to be allowed to write insurance for federal employees government wide (accepting pre-existing and without physicals), but they cannot offer us (the public who are supposedly the owners and boss of the “government”) the same thing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If, as a citizen, it is my government, why can’t I simply add on to the existing programs. If they want to write policies for all the “employees” then why not the “owners” ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In conclusion, I think the opponents and delayers to health care reform should be willing to abandon their health packages and take the same risk the rest of us face. Then, perhaps, they would be motivated to do something for the people and not just for their financial sponsors because they would finally have a vested interest in “doing the right thing”!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The difference between “Government Service” and “Public Service” is who you serve. &lt;strong&gt;Government servants only serve themselves&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Public servants serve the people…all the people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Quit serving yourselves and start serving the people&lt;/strong&gt;. Pretend to &lt;strong&gt;do something noble&lt;/strong&gt; and worthwhile and try to &lt;strong&gt;earn the respect you&lt;/strong&gt; try to demand but &lt;strong&gt;do not deserve&lt;/strong&gt;. Maybe you will come to deserve it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;And that's my Point of View Today...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img height="18" alt="free hit counters" src="http://simplehitcounter.com/hit.asp?uid=585060&amp;amp;f=0&amp;amp;b=16777215" width="83" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:0;"&gt;free hit counters&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/443159381030769228-414843197635430482?l=mypovtoday.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/feeds/414843197635430482/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-need-health-care-reform-now.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/414843197635430482'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/414843197635430482'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-need-health-care-reform-now.html' title='We Need Health Care Reform Now!'/><author><name>mypovtoday</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/18139092374820650353</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SvcaCKPBd-I/AAAAAAAAAAk/LN5QSTZb2ew/s72-c/health-care-reform.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443159381030769228.post-5175500959714971618</id><published>2009-10-30T12:49:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-10-30T13:15:20.999-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='high school sports'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='college sports'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='improving education'/><title type='text'>Eliminate High School &amp; College Sports Programs !</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SutGOhNAL6I/AAAAAAAAAAU/8XDp0kB_iWM/s1600-h/sports.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398485793578692514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 308px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SutGOhNAL6I/AAAAAAAAAAU/8XDp0kB_iWM/s320/sports.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;We must re-examine our educational systems to allow our children to function in the world today. Our youth has fallen behind the rest of the world educationally and are becoming less and less able to compete in a global market. Perhaps some changes like these might help improve our children’s chances to succeed.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;Firstly, we can stop spending outrageous amounts of money on football, basketball, baseball, and all the other “sacred” games that do not directly contribute to a real education. We can still have extra curricular activities, but let’s put them in perspective. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;We have heard all the “excuses” about poor and underprivileged kid having sports as “their only way out”, however, this is not really the case. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;For every kid that turns pro and gets the dream, there are tens of thousands that do not. Those that don’t are sorely in need of the education that they don’t get. In real benefits, those Dollars could likely be better spent on the books and other educational supplies we keep hearing about being unaffordable. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;Sports are (or should be) a extra activity after school only for those with “real” decent grades. Not as a substitute for education just for a winning season. Sports are not religions (or certainly shouldn’t be) and unearned and undeserved diplomas should not be a Holy Grail. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;Graduating students who played well but received no real education is doing them a terrible injustice. Denying educational tools to the rest of a student body to fund basically illiterate sports graduates is equally wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We should stop paying teachers substandard salaries and let them teach and not be baby sitters. They are (or should be) one of the most valuable segments of society and should be treated with more respect and dignity.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;In societies that have been urban as apposed to agricultural for centuries, schools are in session year round. Children were not needed for planting and harvesting and these have long been the cultural centers of the world. Shouldn’t we be that? The students in these places are measurably more educated and at an earlier age than our children. It’s time we caught up.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;It’s appalling that High School and College graduates cannot even make change without a register to figure it for them. That children need a calculator to do basic math is saddening. That they are allowed to do so is even more so. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;The more dependant we become on technology, the easier it is for us to be crippled by seemingly minor things.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;We definitely need to re-examine our educational systems goals and perspectives . At 40 years of age, an illiterate second string college ball player may have a degree but no real useful skills with which to earn a living. It is Tragic!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;That’s My Point of View Today&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- Start of SimpleHitCounter Code --&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://simplehitcounter.com/hit.asp?uid=575517&amp;f=16777215&amp;b=0" border="0" height="18" width="83" alt="free hit counters"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;font size="-3"&gt;free hit counters&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- End of SimpleHitCounter Code --&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/443159381030769228-5175500959714971618?l=mypovtoday.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/feeds/5175500959714971618/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/10/eliminate-high-school-college-sports.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/5175500959714971618'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/5175500959714971618'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/10/eliminate-high-school-college-sports.html' title='Eliminate High School &amp; College Sports Programs !'/><author><name>mypovtoday</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/18139092374820650353</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SutGOhNAL6I/AAAAAAAAAAU/8XDp0kB_iWM/s72-c/sports.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443159381030769228.post-2151496081914454741</id><published>2009-10-29T09:48:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-10-29T10:45:16.201-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Too much Michael Jackson'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='MJ Overload'/><title type='text'>Michael Jackson… Enough Already!!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SunUn-1xrUI/AAAAAAAAAAM/bwY9EuARx3E/s1600-h/MichaelJackson2a.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SunUn-1xrUI/AAAAAAAAAAM/bwY9EuARx3E/s320/MichaelJackson2a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398079411728788802" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"  &gt;In the period of time since Michael Jackson’s death we have been deluged with MJ overload !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He may very well have been a great performer, however, assigning him the level of Sainthood that the media and fans have done is ludicrous.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;His contributions to pop music are certainly undeniable but to think he died for his music or his fans is delusional. His death, however tragic, was from a drug overdose (accidental or homicidal) and he certainly isn’t floating on a cloud counting all the exploited millions being made from the despicable marketing of everything Michael. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;That is being done by those who have claimed to love him. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If he was, in fact, the kind, gentle, person many profess him to be, he would be horrified at what has transpired. He wouldn’t want people standing in line for days just to see an exploitive cobbled together movie designed to separate fans from hard earned dollars in such tough times.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even sadder is the publics devotion to an entertainer who died for nothing under a cloud and no such clamor for all the servicemen who have died for something in WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other nameless and unknown places for that very same public.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;You don’t even know their names &lt;/span&gt;but they gave that “ last full measure of devotion” and practically no one cared.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If all those brave souls had not died in the dirt somewhere, sometime, then you would not be able to stand in line to throw money at the profiteers who are&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt; using Michael and You one more time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;That's My Point of View Today!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;!-- Start of SimpleHitCounter Code --&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://simplehitcounter.com/hit.asp?uid=574133&amp;amp;f=16777215&amp;amp;b=0" alt="free hit counters" border="0" height="18" width="83" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simplehitcounter.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:-3;"&gt;free hit counters&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- End of SimpleHitCounter Code --&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/443159381030769228-2151496081914454741?l=mypovtoday.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/feeds/2151496081914454741/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/10/michael-jackson-enough-already.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/2151496081914454741'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/443159381030769228/posts/default/2151496081914454741'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://mypovtoday.blogspot.com/2009/10/michael-jackson-enough-already.html' title='Michael Jackson… Enough Already!!!'/><author><name>mypovtoday</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/18139092374820650353</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__3sBLb8wOv8/SunUn-1xrUI/AAAAAAAAAAM/bwY9EuARx3E/s72-c/MichaelJackson2a.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
