Disney Disappointment

For those of you who don't know, I have a teenage "Stepson", Holden,  who is severely autistic. He is non verbal and has some sensory issues. It is very easy for him to get frustrated and overwhelmed. His disability is so severe that the state has issued us a handicap tag for the van. He spends most of his time watching Batman and Spiderman videos and also goes through spurts where he will watch Disney Movies. Lion King is one of his favorites. He prefers to be alone though, and crowds kinda freak him out.

We had heard that Disney world was exceptional at dealing with people with disabilities. Everything we read on the internet, or heard from people who had taken someone with a handicap there had given us nothing but positive feedback. Taking Holden to Disney did not seem to be a tough decision. We knew it would not be easy, but with all of the accommodations Disney makes, we figured it would be OK.

Disney's Animal Kingdom put many of the fears Joanne and I had to rest. They were on it. When you get into the gate, all you have to do is go to Customer Relations, tell them you have someone in your party that has a disability, show them proof if they ask, and they will issue you a card. From that point on, all you had to do is show that card to someone at the attraction or ride and they immediately go out of their way to make sure your needs are met. They will put you in a special line that takes you to the front, bypassing all the Hoi-Polloi. The employees continually went above and beyond what we expected. Joanne and I were impressed.

Universal Islands of Adventure was exactly the same way. Friendly, accommodating and understanding. We could not have asked for a better experience. Holden was one happy guy.

After taking a day off to hang out at the resort and celebrate Jack's birthday a day early, we headed to Disney's Magic Kingdom, not at all worried about how Holden was going to handle the day.

The crowd was already pretty large when we got there. We waited for the Ferry to take us to the park with no real problems. The Ferry ride was nice. The only complaint we had was the distance we had to walk to even get to the ticket gate.

Shortly after getting into the park, meeting Mickey and Minnie, and watching one of the many productions they have going on throughout the day on the streets we headed over to Tomorrowland. The first hint of a problem happened here. Jenna, Holden and Joanne's niece Morgan decided to ride the Astro Orbiter. Some kind of "Jet" ride that just goes in circles. There was already quite a line. Joanne and I watched as the kids walked up to the line, showed the card and got escorted to the front of the line. A few people went ahead of them, then they were allowed to........get in the middle of the mouse maze. Well, I am generally optimistic, so I just figured since it was an older ride, there wasn't much they could do to re-configure the cues. We didn't think much about it, until the next attraction, Monsters Inc.

If you have never been there, Disney doesn't just make you stand in the cues for most attractions. They entertain you, setting up the premise for the show or ride. Monsters Inc is a very funny little show, that made us laugh and includes a lot of audience interaction. However, this is where it began to dawn on us there might be somewhat of an issue. When we showed the card, we were informed that we would have to go through the 1st cue until we reached a specific door, and we would find the access for handicapped persons through that door. Sounds good........well except for the fact we were standing right next to the door we had to go through. Now, when I say right next to, I mean RIGHT next to. Why did we have to go through a very crowded cue, just to walk into a door that we were standing right next to? Well, maybe there was a reason that would reveal itself once we walked through that magical door.

But No. It did move us past the other 2 cues, right into a long line of people in wheelchairs. We were stacking up. So again I go back to, if this is where we ended up, why did we have to wait in a cue, with someone who can't handle crowds for long? Joanne and I were befuddled.

We ran into similar issues all day.  Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Cafe and Inn wanted us to just "leave him here" while we waited in line to get food, When we voiced our concern, we were told we couldn't sit at a table while we waited, without an explanation why, or even a hint of concern as to what our concerns were. By the way, we did show them our card. They knew we had someone who needed some special accommodation. They did not care.

The Haunted Mansion didn't even offer any other access.

The Jungle Boat ride made us wait, as well as an older gentlemen in a wheelchair and his family. You know me, I struck up a conversation with them and found out that they also had a son who had sensory issues and Asperger's Syndrome. They had been having the same problems we were.

At the Main Street Electric Parade, we were told go here, go there, you can't go this way, you need to go that way.....the employees didn't seem to know what was going on. We did finally find a spot, right on the edge of the street where we would be able to see the parade. And what do you know. Without knowing it, and without ANY assistance from Disney personnel, we ended up in a section specifically for people with disabilities. In talking to them, they ALL had similar problems. One lady was so irate about the way her father was treated, she actually refused to budge when she was asked to back so they could put up the barriers. They had been pushed around and back all day and she had had enough.

I could go into WAY more detail here, but who has time for that? Bottom line is this. A disability is not always visible. Accommodations aren't just making a path for someone to get through. Disabilities run much, much deeper sometimes. Being herded around like cattle, or completely ignored does not make the issue go away. We won't be back, and we will warn all who care to listen, that Magic Kingdom is not the place to go if you are with someone with disabilities.

Mickey, you had a whole lot of disappointed people there on July 4th, 2012.

On the plus side, since it was Jack's birthday, they gave him a button with "Happy Birthday Jack" on it and the staff was really good about wishing him Happy Birthday by his name. He was thrilled. One of the Cinderella's evil step-sisters even said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK" in a mean, evil step-sisterly kind of voice from one of the floats in the parade. It truly was a magical evening for Jack, Jenna, Morgan and Holden. I wonder how much better it would have been for Holden if his needs could have been better met. Unfortunately, he will never be able to tell us.

Raising Revenue........ the Hard Way

Well, election season is upon us, and I know many of your eyes glaze over at the thought of all the political ads and talking heads each claiming their guy is right and the other guy is wrong. I will be doing my fair share of it. I LOVE politics even though it drives me crazy.

But there is one thing that drives me crazier than the rest of the crap I hear out there and I feel the need to pontificate upon it.

President Obama is currently out there talking about the "Buffett Rule". For those who don't know, this rule is named for Warren Buffett, the President and CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway, a multi-billion dollar company whose stock value is currently in the $100,000 a share range. The premise is that Mr. Buffett pays less in taxes than his secretary and that is fundamentally unfair, and we should raise the taxes on the rich to make things more "Fair".

That word, "Fair" is key. Everyone wants to be fair, and this rich guy paying less than his poor secretary doesn't seem fair at all. Well, Mr. Buffett doesn't pay income taxes first of all, he pays capital gains tax, because he does not take a salary. So right off the bat, they are comparing 2 different taxes. That doesn't seem fair either.

President Obama is claiming that raising these taxes on the rich will cure our economic ills. It will allow us to invest in education, renewable energy, infrastructure AND pay down our debt. WOW, those rich people keeping all THEIR money SUCKS! The Buffett rule would sure bring in a whole lot of revenue, right? Well, let's look at that.....

We have been told that the Buffett Rule would increase revenues by 54 Billion dollars. Holy Cow, that is a bunch of money. Well, sure, it is over 10 years, but that is still 5.4 Billion Dollars a year and THAT is a TON of cash. I can see why people on the left are screaming for that money.

The sad truth is, however, that our annual deficits are running 1.2 TRILLION dollars and 5.4 Billion dollars will barely make a dent, let alone heal the sick, and all the other miracles they are claiming this extra revenue will do. In fact, the estimated number of people making over a million dollars a year is somewhere between 110, 000 and 220,000, depending on which number fits which argument one side or the other is trying to make. Let's take the higher number just for fun. If you took 1 million dollars from each of them it is only 220 Billion dollars, and that is barely enough to cover the deficit for February of 2012.

Which makes me wonder why they keep going to this "Tax the rich" argument when it will do practically NOTHING to ANY of the things they are claiming that it will.

However, revenues have ALWAYS gone up when taxes are lowered. It worked under Coolidge. It worked under JFK. It worked under Reagan and it worked under the evil G.W. Bush. During his presidency, revenues went from 995 Billion a year to 1.436 TRILLION a year. Now I am not the smartest cookie, but that seems like a heck of a lot more annual revenue increase than 5.4 billion.

So it seems to me that if my friends on the left wanted more money to spend on the poor, or kids, or old people or trees (That ALL conservatives want to eliminate from the face of the earth) or stuff like that, They would get off the tax the rich bandwagon and get on the lower taxes for all bandwagon, because that is what increases revenues and that IS fair.

I believe our president knows this and is being dishonest with us. Politicians take advantage of the fact that most people don't pay attention and MANY people just don't give a crap and don't bother looking into facts before forming an opinion. This isn't just a republican/democrat thing. This is a politician thing and it HAS to stop.

President Obama, either you are lying to the American people, or your advisers are idiots. Which is it?

I have another post similar to this called "Why the left should like Trickle Down Economics" and "I Got Your deficit Reduction Right Here". Feel free to check them or any other post out. All comments, if respectful, are welcome.

Thankful? Yes!

Here is a quick list of some of the things I am thankful for.

My Savior, Mom, Dad, sisters Bethany and Linda, brother Jeremy, sweety Joanne, "Step kids"(Josh, Luke, Jenna, Holden)son Jack, job, roof over my head (even if it is the roof of a truck most of the time) plenty of food, heat, ac, humor, friends I have known most of my life, friends I barely know up to and including my fb and twitter families (they give me hours of entertainment out there on the road), our armed forces, our veterans, those who gave their life defending my freedom, our political leaders (even though I thhink most of them are self gratifying weasels) ,my relatively good health, flat screen tv's, a van that keeps on running reliably, my computer, cell phones, peanut butter and jelly (it sustained me most of my life) blah, blah, blah.

I could list more, but I am sure ya'll stopped reading that last paragraph after the first few. So I will just say this. I am thankful for everything in my life, good and bad. The good makes life good, and the bad makes me appreaciate the good even more. May your Thanksgiving be great today.

Food Stamp Stimulus

As I sit here waiting for the Exederin to take my headache away, I heard some muckity muck from the Obama administration say that food stamps were the best kind of stimulus we have. Nancy Pelosi has stated the same thing about unemployment checks and both of these people claimed that both of these programs created jobs, adding $1.84 to the economy for every dollar spent. Uhhhhhhhh..........

Don't fall for it. On it's face, that may seem plausible, and even something great for our economy. However, the math just doesn't work.

Food stamps and unemployment checks are needed, don't get me wrong. They are a safety net, and a lifeline to many people who genuinely need it. I am only questioning the stimulative affect and the amount of said affect. Follow me on this

First of all, that dollar came from somewhere. The government does not produce wealth. They don't sell anything (except a bunch of crap to the american people), they do not create anything (except headaches for the american people), and just printing money....well, that is a whole different blog post. That dollar came out of the private sector via taxes. Whether income tax, corporate tax, fuel tax, inheritance tax, sin tax, luxury tax, gas guzzler tax, or some other tax they have imposed on us, they have taken this dollar out of the economy.

So right from the start, we are only replacing a dollar with another dollar, so the stimulative affect is down to 84 cents.

Now, do you really think, that this dollar just passed through hands, or were there administrative costs? First the IRS has to take it, then the Department of agriculture has to give it. So, being kind, let's say that this only costs us 25%. (Too tired to do the math on this, but I bet I am pretty close. I may have low-balled it though. The governemnt has NEVER shown itself to be particularly efficient.)

So, take another 25 cents off of that 84 cents, and it leaves you with 59 cents for every dollar spent. So at best, jobs aren't being created, but they may be being maintained.

So while these programs are needed, don't tell me they are stimulative. I ain't buying it.

PS. If it was stimulative, our economy would be booming. There are more people on Food Stamps and unemployment now than ever. So don't think I am anti food stamp. I am anti BS from Washington

Why the left should LIKE trickle down economics

I heard it again and it drives me crazy. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, DNC Chair, was blaming the economy on George W. Bush again, talking about the "failed economic policies" of the Bush administration. May I ask, exactly WHAT policies are you talking about Ms. Chairwoman?

The policies that lead to 54 straight months of economic growth AFTER 9/11?

The lower tax policies that saw revenue GROW from 995 billion dollars a year to 1.445 trillion dollars a year?

How about the policies that saw the average unemployment at 5.7% with the lowest being 5%, which many economist consider to be full employment.

In fact, if you wanna play politics, the economy was humming along great until the Dems took over in 2006, and started controlling things like banking and budgets.

GW isn't blameless. He approved bloating budgets and "abandoned free market principles to save the free market." (I never did inderstand that one). Fannie May and Freddie Mac pressured banks to give loans to people who shouldn't have them. And while GW called for reforming them 17 times, Barney (I break wind on live TV) Franks and Chris Dodd fought refoming them. (They were also the ones who supposedly "Fixed" them afterwards. We just sent Freddie and Fannie another 100 billion in bailout dollars. Good Job you guys!)

But politics aside, a fact that I would think the left would embrace would be the fact that lower taxes ALWAYS increases revenues. It did under JFK, Reagan and GW Bush. And while raising taxes does increase revenue, it is only a short lived increase and then revenues become flat and start to fall.

So if lowering taxes increases revenue, that means more money to spend on kids, old people, and other projects that the left "claims" conservatives are against.

So, get on the lower taxes bandwagon all you folks on the left. Or is there some other reason you want to tax the "Rich" more?

Just remember this, when the rich end up not having enough money to fund all the stuff, the government will keep dropping the bar for what it considers rich, and eventually they will come for your wealth.

I Got Your Deficit Reduction Right Here!!!!!

The budget "talks" in Washington are really getting on my nerves. John Boehner wants to give a short term increase on the Debt ceiling because republicans want it to be an issue again before the 2012 elections. President Obama and the Democrats want it to be a longer term deal because they don't want it to be an issue. Both sides are being disingenuous and playing games with our countries future, just so they can gain or maintain their power in the corrupt District of Columbia. President Obama brought up the fact that the debt limit was raised under Reagan 17 times (That works out to just over one every five months), while saying we needed a long term increase to the debt limit, because 6 months is too short a time.

Both plans currently on the table, while claiming to reduce spending by almost a Trillion dollars, are only decreasing the growth of spending. They are not actually cutting spending. By the way, that trillion dollars is over a ten year period. Besides not being enough to cover our deficit spending for one year, it does nothing to pay down our debt. So, if we aren't covering our deficit, that means we are doing nothing but adding to our debt. Great plan you idiots.

Cuts are needed across the board. Deep, painful cuts. I know my liberal, or progressive, or whatever you are calling yourself, friends will say that conservatives are trying to starve children, kill old people, and ruin the environment all in the name of giving the "wealthy" tax cuts. Whatever! That is a lie, pushed on you by a liberal media, that doesn't have anything else in their arsenal, so they fall back on the tried and true method of misrepresentation.

Cutting taxes, no matter WHO they are on always results in an increase in revenue to the Federal Government. Why? Lower taxes means more to spend. More to spend, means more things are bought. More things being bought means higher demand. Higher demand means more employees are needed to meet that demand. More people working means more taxes being paid and that results in higher revenues. By the way. The OPPOSITE happens when you raise taxes. But don't take my word for it. Here are the figures...

Year Revenue

2000 - 995.1 Billion
2001 - 1.028 Trillion
2002 - 1.064 Trillion
2003 - 1.114 Trillion
2004 - 1.186 Trillion
2005 - 1.263 Trillion
2006 - 1.339 Trillion
2007 - 1.407 Trillion
2008 - 1.436 Trillion
2009 - 1.411 Trillion
2010 - 1.466 Trillion
2011 - 1.507 Trillion (estimated)

These increases are under the Bush Tax Rates. Look....they go up, not down. Hmmm, maybe the problem isn't the tax rates. Maybe it is the spending. Nahhhh, I am just fear-mongering here. Trying to give the oil companies more subsidies. (Those do not exist by the way. Show them to me Mr. President. They get the same tax breaks ALL companies get, even GE, who paid almost NO Taxes last year. It is good to be F.O.O.)I recently presented these facts and figures to a liberal acquaintance of mine and the debate immediately switched from facts and figures to "I can't believe you conservatives actually stand up for the rich, who are destroying the middle class" crap. Don't let facts get in the way of a good theory.

I have said before and I will say it again, I would be more than willing to pay more in taxes if I believed that our elected officials would actually be responsible with the extra money and not be wasteful with it, like studying the habits of foreign prostitutes, or building treadmills for SHRIMP! (both of these were actual stimulus plan exenditures)

Wanna know how to pay off the deficit and keep the US at a Triple A credit rating? Balance the budget. Period. It isn't rocket science. Show you are serious about tackling the debt and keeping your finances in order, the rating will stay high. Keep spending and do nothing substative to tackle the debt, kiss the credit rating goodbye.

I guess what I am trying to say is this. Both sides got us into this. Neither side seems particularly anxious to get us out. Balancing the budget means no more "special" projects to win votes. Awwww, poor widdle politicians!

There is much more I could say about this, but I will leave it at this. Balance the budget you fools!

4th of July thoughts

I am thankful to live in this country. No other country in the history of the world has accomplished what the United States has in such a short amount of time. No other country is as generous as the United States. All because a few very brave men put their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" on the line.

Right now we are in a "fight" for our financial life as a country. Politicians, whose only goal is to stay in power, have promised all things to all people, and now the american people, and their children and childrens children are stuck with trying to pay off their promises. Now we are trusting these same politicians to make the right decisions as to how to pay off this debt and put us on sound financial footing. Fool me once......

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy." -Thomas Jefferson

On this Independence day, we have saddled future generations with enormous public debt. Most americans believe that our children will NOT have things as good as we do. This is the first time in our history this has been thought of future generations. I worry for our kids future myself. We are already taxed on our food and drink, necessities and comforts, our labor and amusements. What else is there? Higher taxes on these things? We can tax the "rich" at 100% and still not have enought to pay our deficit for one year. (the top 1% already pay 50% of the income taxes in our country. The top 10% pay 80%. I think they are already paying their fair share)

Raise the debt ceiling? Neither option will end well. Yes, and congress will continue to spend, plunging us deeper in debt, and trashing our nations credit standing. No, and deep cuts in all programs and services will need to be implemented, which will also cause pain for a lot of people.

As for me, I would rather have the pain now, so our children can enjoy liberty like we have, instead of being enslaved by crushing debt.

I do not have all the answers, but as I watch my son Jack playing on the floor in front of me, I pray that his generation will enjoy their liberty, and not have to ask us why we didn't solve the problem when we had the chance.