Tag Archives: opinions

THE FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY

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THE FLAT EARTH CONSPIRACY

Once upon a time, science was regarded as one of the most respectable and important tools in our arsenal to understand our world, ourselves, and our place in the universe. Sure, it’s had its problems, its fanatic practitioners who’ve embarrassed the look of said tool, but always it was driven by fact and observation. Its butted heads with religion but at the end of the day science is not a religion but a practice of logic and practicality. Whereas religion is about feeling and faith, science is cold and calculating. A dominion of the mind.

     If a scientist said the moon was round, composed of various elements, and could only be reached via a slow two day trip, we believed them. Because they were scientists. These were the people who ‘knew’ because they used their minds to solve problems.

     And then something happened.

     Over the last few decades, hardline ideologues with a mind towards the theological, managed to convince a number of the public that scientists were wrong and not to be trusted.

     Global warming being caused by human beings?

     Don’t be ridiculous! Just because we’re pouring 40 billion tons of carbon into the air annually, doesn’t mean that’s having an effect on the environment! Besides, here’s a snowball!

     We need better monitoring systems of NEOs (near earth asteroids)? Ludicrous! A near earth object hasn’t hurt Earth since the dinosaurs! Scientists are just trying to panic you! We’ll never have to worry about that again!

     Immunizations can stop child hood diseases? Laughable! Do you think we don’t see what you’re trying to do!? You’re trying to make our children autistic! Don’t trust them!

     Our energy needs need to change? Preposterous! We’ve been using gasoline for over a century and we’ve never been better! They just want to take away your independence!

     Rhetoric is trumping our scientific understanding. And no where is it more apparent than under the growing movement of the Flat Earth Society.

     Yes. That’s right. There are people who believe that the Earth is flat. Still. And it’s getting larger. The movement that is.

     Now, I’m not going to sit here and give a rational summizing of how they’re wrong and this is the evidence supporting my claims and etc etc etc. Mostly because, I’ve already had this argument many, many times. And it’s frivolous. They just believe it and their minds cannot be changed. So I’m going to take this opportunity to lament over the lost scruples of our new day and age because, obviously, we’re devolving as a society.

     So, just what is the Flat Earth Society and the Flat Earth Movement (affectionately known as ‘flattards’ in some circles)? It is a movement that believes there is a global conspiracy to conceal the true nature of Earth. That every nation on the face of the planet might be in conflict with each other from time to time but agree on this one fundamental issue that they must keep the fact from everyone around the world that the world is actually flat. And that flatness is encircled by a giant sheet of ice known as Antarctica. And that no one has ever crossed that ice sheet because: A) it’s illegal and monitored by every nation’s military and B) because it’s impossible to do.

     They also believe that gravity doesn’t exist. That what we call gravity is a force of acceleration by the massive disk we live on as it continues to fly upward by some unknown force. Through space. Forever. The sun and the moon are also small spheres twirling around each other above us giving us day and night.

     That’s it in a nutshell.

     And this…THIS is what people believe in that movement. It’s impossible to believe that the Earth is round with its own gravity well but, BUT it obviously makes much more sense that a giant disc encompassed by an ice sheet is speeding upwards through space for all eternity with two marbles doing a synchronized dance just above its surface!

     Sure, why not.

     How have we gotten to the point in our society where science is ridiculed but believing THIS is rational!?

     But, Tim, you might say, we have the evidence to show them! We’ve been to space! We travel around the world every day! Photos show the curvature of the globe! Satellites are in geo synchronous orbit! We have the factual evidence of the distances of the sun, the stars, and other planets away from us! We can observe!

     LIES! They’ll tell you. According to the Flat Earther, NASA never went to space. It was made up because we were in the cold war with Russia. Those photos allegedly taken in space?  Fabrications to fool the public.

     Travelers flying on planes, the Flat Earther will say, are not flying around the globe. No they’re actually completing a wide circuit on the disk top that somehow expends less fuel than say flying in a straight line, I guess. OH! But planes also can’t fly in a straight line, they’ll say! Because the pilot must readjust altitude if this were a real globe and since they don’t that shows how flat the Earth really is! Don’t believe me? Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOWZGky6Rc0

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCbdneAe2gk

     You’ll note that Flat Earthers will keep saying ‘show me the evidence to support your claim’. And when you show the evidence from over three thousand years of human migrational patterns, photos, stories, observations, your own eyes- they’ll dismiss it out right as ‘fake’ because there is NO evidence that you can provide them that will satisfy their conditions of ‘truth’.

     On the other hand, if you ask them to provide evidence to support THEIR claims, the likely response will skirt the ‘it can’t be shown’ argument and references to some idiot over a century and a half ago performing visual experiments on a lake because, to them, a boat doesn’t disappear ‘over’ a horizon, it vanishes view because of a curvature of your eye. But if you grab binoculars or a telescope you can clearly see the boat is still there so therefore the Earth is flat.

     And that’s it. Nonsensical retorts to scientific observations because what science has shown of the true nature is empirical.

     But that’s really part of the modern problem though isn’t it? These days the Flat Earthers CAN exist because our culture encourages them to exist. It’s no longer about empirical evidence and replication of experimentation. It’s no longer about the mind and what you can support with facts. It’s now about how you ‘feel’ something is true and therefore must be. I’ll use a word I once heard Stephen Colbert use: ‘truthiness’.

     Truthiness: I feel it is true so it must be.

     That sums up the state of our nation, of our species any more. The idea that personal world views supersedes factual demonstration is now paramount in the average mind. It’s a self placating gesture to shield oneself from serious problems in a world that continues to become more complicated and difficult to find a solution within.

     That and fear. Both are driving forces convincing people to follow the rhetoric of obvious liars because at least they offer a solution to issues we’re generally ill equipped to contend with. But this sort of personal security comes at the cost of other’s well being.

     If you’re a parent afraid to vaccinate your child because you fear the potential of autism being acquired, then you should be aware of the FACT that you’re definitely putting your child’s health on the line to whatever disease they might have been vaccinated against.

     If you don’t believe that human activities are a direct link to climate change and go out of your way to help elect candidates that are staunchly against environmental regulation, you should be aware that 40 billion tons of pollutants are entering the atmosphere every year. which, admittedly, is only .oo4 percent of the total atmosphere of our biome. However, the caveat being that that very slight change causes a warming of up to 1 degree temperature overall which leads to melting polar caps which add fresh water into the world’s oceans which disrupt currents, change migration patterns, can cause droughts and famine, and alter the soils where we farm making those locations no longer viable for food production.

     If you believe we are not facing an energy crisis and that our society will always have access to fossil fuels, you should know that the future viability of fossil fuels are very much in question and a need for alternative sources of energy production are required moving forward if we don’t want our society coming to a screeching, screaming halt.

     I’m sure a few people reading this will already be saying, “Look at this liberal cuck spewing ideological nonsense! You liberals are why we have problems!” To that I retort that’s part of the problem and what I’m talking about. Science has been demonized so much over the last few decades that it’s been given a label that doesn’t properly denote its value, that if you follow science you must therefore be a liberal. Effectively turning science into an ideology and thusly an enemy to be despised.

     But science is not liberal. It is not conservative. It is a tool. A tool we use to understand our world. The people who use those tools can have an ideology but the observation and replication aspects of the tool espouses no desire and only provides findings. And those findings give us the information we need to make educated decision.s Which is something I should think we’d all want.

     However, too many are taking aim at science. Taking aim at the very notion of finding real, irrefutable facts. Instead favoring ‘alternate facts’ and the idea that feeling is just as valid as the reality around them. Don’t get me wrong, feelings are important. They can keep you out of trouble and help you be wise in your decision making. But feelings are not observable. Alternative facts are not observable. Facts are facts because they were observed to be true. And that comes about by using the scientific approach.

     Unlike Flat Earthers who are the most notable syptom of this increasingly widening problem. And we need to get back to our respect of science. Or one day we’ll all believe we’re living on a giant disk screaming through space with two twirling marbles in the sky just above it giving us night and day.

     Are we sober yet?

 

For further reading check out this excellent article on the subject:

https://www.distract101.com/2017/01/flat-earth-theory-debunked-complete-guide/

Us Vs Them: The Human Condition

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US VS THEM: THE HUMAN CONDITION

Racism. A rightfully hateful word. It’s full of rage and disgust and the judgement that whatever is different is bad. Or if it’s not bad, it at least is predisposed to certain proclivities that can’t be ignored. For most people, racism as a term implies the eternal struggle between black and white (any sort of prejudice towards foreign entities tends to be more in the “xenophobic” category in most minds. Unless you’re African). It is filled to the brim with assumptions of character, class, wealth, identity, and mannerisms. It doesn’t care if it’s accurate, only that the wielder is secure in their own mind about what’s right and what’s wrong.

     Unfortunately, we don’t get racism without stereotypes. And stereotypes exist because of certain truths we’re all familiar with. Yet those truths come from over generalization based on a limited interaction with select individuals. Which of course colorizes perspectives and leads to general prejudices for which we’re all guilty.

     Let’s look at a prime example that I think shines a bright light on my line of thought. This is an example that, regrettably, is all too prevalent in our society and serves as the driving force of confusion, fear, and ignorance.

     The example being, but of course, the perception of White Vs Black. These perceptions are a result of two different prognostications: All Black people are criminals. And all White people are racist.

     Out of these misunderstandings you get the Black Lives Matter movement and its counterpoint: All Lives Matter. Both are correct in their assertions but are driven by a disconcerting bias both wield like a lethal weapon, changing the type of discourse we as a nation need to be having.

     The Black Lives Matter movement was spearheaded as a response to police violence and brutality. It says that Black people shouldn’t be targeted for being Black and that officers need to be held to a higher level of accountability. A sentiment that is completely reasonable but that in and of itself has approached its methods like all police and White people are the enemy. At least, this is how the movement is perceived from those outside of it.

     With the All Lives Matter movement, we have a direct response to the Black Lives Matter movement (And from here we get campaigns like Blue Lives Matter and the ill-conceived suggestion of a White Lives Matter movement in the works. But we’ll focus on the umbrella thought of All Lives Matter). The line of reasoning here being that you can’t just focus on one set of people. Everyone is important and deserve the same rights and respect. Which, again, is a reasonable line of thought.

     The biggest problem with these movements is their unwillingness to see through each other’s eyes. There are officers out there who are racist and more accountability is never a bad thing (though for some reason some would argue against that notion and would rather assume that authority would never turn on them). Yet, those officers make up only a small percentage of the police force and the truth is just as many incidents of police shooting unarmed White people occurs yearly as well. Though the media doesn’t help here as sensationalism is the big draw and a certain narrative must be maintained.

     Just the same there are Black people out there who do commit crimes as well. It’s a reality but one based in selectivity. And certainly the police need to be able to respond to criminal behavior be it breaking and entering, theft, rioting, or murder. There is a truth to be found in the facts that there is a large portion of Black youth who are criminals and do threaten members of society.

     I can hear it now. “That was the most racist thing I’ve ever read!” And that’s part of the problem. If we, as a society, are unable to discuss race related incidents without shouting “that’s racist” there will never be a solution to our ails. You’ll note that I didn’t say all Black people are criminals. Didn’t even say all Black youth are criminals. And I didn’t even suggest that it was a majority of Black youth. And this is because I don’t believe it to be true.

     In fact based on the data I’ve seen crimes as a whole tend to gravitate towards certain pockets of society. And just because one pocket is of a certain color does not imply it’s indicative of an ethnicity as a whole.

     Statistics will show fairly accurately that most crime is committed in heavy population centers. And those statistics are pretty consistent percentage wise over the various ethnicities guilty of perpetrating said crimes. (I’m not going to bore you with those stats here but you can find them quite easily via government and FBI websites. This is more an opinion piece and my thoughts than a paper on these issues though I can provide those stats if it becomes necessary.)

     Regardless of ethnicity commented on: White, Black, Asian, Native, Latino, etc, the list goes on, the data pretty consistently points to poverty and convenience as the main motivations of crime and that is the same across the board. Afterall, law enforcement didn’t just spring up overnight because a certain ethnicity moved in. It’s been necessary since the dawn of civilization because wherever you find humans, you find crime.

     So if we all experience the same issues, and stereotypes are driven by interactions with individuals and small groups (gangs, rednecks, hate groups, rioters, or however else we perceive these outliers) then why do we, as a species, cling to this belief that certain other people are just no good? Why do we cling to the idea that all muslims are terrorists despite knowing those are isolated groups of militants who are often ostracized even in their own homelands? Why do we continue to  harbor the ill feeling that all Jews are covetous and greedy despite the knowledge not every Jewish person is an accountant or lawyer or even have an opinion in political affairs? Let alone know how to balance their own checkbooks? Why does the notion linger that all Black people love watermelon and fried chicken when we know for a fact that EVERYONE loves watermelon and fried chicken? Ok, that last one is not factual just a strong feeling because KFC is not kept open by just Black folk.

     But now that we’ve opened that can of worms, why is there a perception that KFC is for White folk while Church’s is a Black establishment? They are both popular. Both good. And both prove that Americans love chicken.

     The problem, unfortunately, is the most simple thing yet the most complex aspect of being human: Us Vs Them. Or, in the most simple term, tribalism. Our species has its origins in surviving the elements through family groupings. And anything that wasn’t our family was a threat. And this mentality still seems to hold sway over civilization to this day.

     “If it doesn’t look like me, it doesn’t sound like us, it’s a threat to our way of life.” And that’s the view the individual in society seems to adopt. Because it’s simple. It’s far simpler to hate someone for being different than it is to accept them for who they are.

     It’s far easier to come up with a muslim ban because the assumption is all muslims are going to kill us and enforce sharia law rather than look to the socio economic issues that have led to militancy worldwide and try to solve THAT problem.

     It’s easier to ignore the Black Lives Matter movement in favor of an All Lives Matter movement because there’s no way there could be endemic issues with American values that would lead to the impoverished and left behind getting into conflicts with law enforcement. Because clearly poor people are poor because they want to be, right? And their issues with the police are a result of their own impulsive behavior. And therefore they have no respect for law enforcement.

     It’s far simpler to build a wall dividing the US from Mexico over fears we’re being overrun by illegal immigrants, than to really look at the problem and figure out why so many are taking the life and death risks of crossing the Rio Grande looking for opportunities and safety that they can’t find back home.

     It’s easier to say that we’re a Christian nation that’s the best nation in the world and turn our backs on those who are suffering most and pretend we still have the moral highground when we’re sacrificing everything we hold most precious out of fear than it is to acknowledge that every religious perspective holds wisdom and gives people a sense of security.

     Because that’s how tribalism works.

     It cares about nobody else but our own. If you’re not with us, you’re against us. And if you want to be with us then that means you were never one of us to begin with. And we further isolate ourselves and put ourselves in even more vulnerable positions as a result.

     Until we can resolve this inner state of chaos, I worry that we’ll never be able to truly solve the issues of our time.

     Issues like terrorism. Issues like nationalism. Issues like global warming. Issues like illegal immigration. Issues like racism and all the other –isms we have to contend with. Issues like dwindling supplies of fresh water and adequate sources of food production. All of it.

     Because, sadly, time is running out. And these issues are not just going to go away. We have to be able to discuss these problems rationally or we truly will lose ourselves to “them”. Only that “them” we’ll discover too late was always “us”.

 

 

To Hell With The PC “Master Race”!

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I am so SICK and tired of hearing how AWESOME the PC players are with their nonsense gaming experiences! Playing games on the PC fucking sucks! I mean completely! I have had enough of the obstinance from the PC community thinking they’re superior to the rest of us. I’m a console player through and through and there’s a reason why.

With a console I don’t have to worry about tweaking my damned game to work right. I don’t have to fine tune the details until it is visually acceptable. It works right when I put it in. The controllers do EXACTLY what they’re supposed to do! I don’t have to download this driver or that update. On a console it just does it! This is the disconnect between PC gamers and console gamers. PC gamers don’t understand WHY console gamers like their consoles.

“Well it’s outdated as soon as it releases!” And I say True! But I don’t have to spend 20 hours trying to get my software to work in the vein hope that there won’t be any issues at the end of the process. With a freaking PC I have to be a fucking programmer with advanced knowledge in C++ to make the goddamned game play. This is true for Steam products and EA products and any games that you have to download! Sure, y0u get to customize your experience but keep in mind this you, “master PC gamers”, those of us who like consoles like them because we DON’T have to be fucking programmers to play one fucking game!

It’s fucking ridiculous! If I buy a controller for the PC and plug it in, the mother fucker should work the second I plug it in! I shouldn’t have to find some obsolete driver that may or may not still exist on the internet just to use it! I shouldn’t have to update my windows os to some newer version I just don’t fucking want just to sample the newest game released! Plug N Play is a term for a reason jackasses! And it’s not for me to sit there and pretend I’m something I’m not and to be berated for not being on board with your bullshit to begin with!

What’s great about the PS4 or XBOX One is that you can just put in a game, plug in a controller, and sit back and enjoy the fucking game you just spent 70 dollars on without having to jump through a million hoops! I HATE, HAAATTTTTEEEE PC gaming! It is soooooooooo inconvenient and frustrating! There is NO fun to be had in it unless you’re some psychopath who has hours a day to spend on specking your rig to the optimal settings and knowing what graphical cards you need, what audio drives you need, what cooling systems are required to make your fucking PC actually fucking work!!!!

To HELL with that shit! Sorry for my obscenities but I’ve had enough! Stop claiming to be the superior gaming society when you have to go through a military boot camp just to play the latest release! It’s annoying and inconvenient! You want to know why so many gamers like console releases!? It’s because they don’t have to spec their PS4 or XBOX One every time they buy a game! They can just plug it in and it works! Period! After a dozen hours of just TRYING to sample a new game, I’ve entirely given up! It’s not worth the stress and agitation! It’s not worth the grief! I’ll stick to my consoles thank you fucking much and don’t you come at me anymore with your bullshit PC master race crap! Because I’ll just call you a sadist and a masochist who’s only happy to suffer under the most unbearable of electronic circumstances!

I just wanna play!

Anyhow…that annoys me sometimes so I won’t be doing that anymore. Just wanted to vent my frustration because, damn, it’s ridiculous. But, you know, if that’s your thing, more power to you.

Viva La Console Race!

The New World Order

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I’ve been wondering lately about something. Do we still need nations? We’re so divided as a species that we’re all constantly warring with one another over “sovereignty” and “statehood” yet we refuse to be concerned with the issues of others who are not ourselves. This leads to the very real threat of global violence on a scale we’ve never seen before. The fascist tendencies of our administration in the US has isolated us already from many diplomatic connections the world over. I mean, how much power does the UN have anymore themselves? There are five veto wielding members of the UN: The US, Russia, France, the UK, and China. Anyone of those entities can basically at a moment’s notice tell the world to go screw itself and no one can say anything about it.

Iran still seems obsessed with controlling the Middle East agenda. As does Saudi Arabia. North Korea seems to think it’s a real threat to the world while China wants to dominate Asia. The UK voted to leave the EU in the vain conceit that somehow they don’t need the rest of Europe. Africa has always been a hotbed of warlords. Russia is flexing its muscles yet again to show that they’re still relevant. Mexico is in a tiff with the US over the border wall. And ISIS STILL thinks they can establish a caliphate in the middle of territories controlled by multiple governments.

But to what end?

Where does this get ANYBODY?? Are any of us safe? 

Trump keeps spewing rhetoric out of his ass as if he actually gives a damn about anyone other than himself about “making America safe again” or even “Great Again” as if this country has never ever been the backbone of trying to establish some sort of global cooperative that wasn’t just about itself.

And no I’m not excusing the poor behavior America has engaged in in the past. Because, let’s face it, we’ve done fucked up on a number of issues but we at least TRIED in the past to be better than the stupid shit we’ve done. And for one brief moment throughout the late nineties we ALL looked to be becoming a global community finally. After at least a dozen wars worldwide over the last century (oh that’s just what I can think of! I’m sure it’s as high as 40 or more easily!) we’re no closer to being an actual global community than we were since. We all gave up! We listened to our leaders who just wanted to get into an epic dick measuring contest with each other across the world! AND FOR WHAT!?! WHAT ARE WE GETTING OUT OF IT!?! HOW ARE WE BENEFITING FROM ALL THIS CARNAGE!??!

We’re not! Religious wars, oil wars, territory wars, border wars, immigrant wars, hate wars, spite wars, economic wars, climate wars…it just doesn’t fucking end! And whenever you bring up a global government that might be able to bring some sort of hope to the destitute survivors of constant war, you have some assholes spouting nonsense about global conspiracies trying to control the populace! It’s too much! Any sane mind has to ask “why?” Why are we doing this to ourselves? What’s the point of nationalism when nations keep changing and borders keep getting redrawn? Will there ever be a time when we can just put down our arms and look to exploration again? When we can thrive together in a cooperative to preserve our societies and ensure that no one is left behind? Must there always be conflict? 

I see the hate in my own nation. See people turning against each other because of political diatribes and dubious ideologies. We’re all so up our own asses about our own beliefs that we’ve stopped being concerned about how our neighbors are doing. And this is because too often even our neighbors are out to get us! How have we survived this long as a species!?

This has become more than a rant than anything but I need to get this off my chest. I no longer care about nations. I care in being Terran. This is our world. We our ONE species. The color of our skin is meaningless. But the test of our character is eternal. 

I look to stories told such as Mass Effect and see a glimmer of hope in the writing that people want to see a better tomorrow. Want to see our species reach for the stars and to coordinate our efforts to be better than the sum of our parts. That we’re not just the rhetoric of our leaders, but that we, as humanity, have a place in this galaxy. We must be driven to be a United Earth. One that will not put up with mutually assured destruction as a defensive mechanism. That we can protect ourselves from the natural threats present in our solar system and that we can settle Mars. And the moon. And Titan. And even Pluto. That we will work together to solve our problems as a world. As Terrans. Not as individual nations selfishly trying to destroy one another. Because if we can’t…then we don’t exist. And that might be okay from those arrogant SOBs who profess to be looking out for our best interests, but it can’t be okay for our species.

We have to give up our notions of boundaries and focus our efforts on those who would strike out against us. Because those who want to control us (criminals, terrorists, xenophobes, racists, tyrants, imbeciles) don’t represent the best of our kind. They only represent the worst of the individual. And no nation is an individual. It’s made up of a world of people.

So let’s stop being individuals. And start being a world. Because then and only then will we truly be great.

Return Of The Centrist

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Greetings and salutations all. Let me reintroduce myself. I am Timothy S Purvis and from now on I will be posting blogs the first Friday of every month. I’ve been making random posts on here since 2012 but nothing has been consistent. Well, I’ve decided to change that. 

What you will find here are my thoughts on current events, topics, concerns, ravings, etc etc. I’ve been busy writing ideas down about what I want to get into and I’m eager to get started. Well, I’ve already gotten started haven’t I!  But my first post in this new era will be March 3rd 2017 and it should be a good one! But be forewarned, these posts might get a little long from here on out. 

Every so often, not on those first Fridays, I may post video links here and there to my animations I post up on youtube just because. I do enjoy doing those videos when I have the chance. So if you happen to have been a reader before with my other posts (which dumbly enough I neglected to tag. Doh!) then there’s more coming! If you’re new, then sit back and get ready for some unfettered thought processes. 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to posting for you!

Sincerely, 

Timothy Scott Purvis aka iCentrist

Links to youtube

https://www.youtube.com/user/Caeliclord   Cosmic Fantasies Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWdU67nDn_UplIZnCS41WRA   My Star Cloud Channel

Open Enrollment Needs To End

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So I’ve been trying for the last two and a half months to get ahold of somebody through my company’s insurance provider. Nobody would answer the phone (their directory menu was utter crap allowing no way to talk to an actual person), I couldn’t enroll online through the system because it didn’t “recognize my information”, and when I finally did get ahold of an operator they treated me like some slithering beast because I’d missed the deadline. “Well you should have enrolled, sir. The deadline has already expired.”

Then I decide, fuck it, I’ll sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Health Care programs. Ha Ha. Nope. Nothing affordable about that. The cheapest I could get per month  was 138 bucks and let me tell you I can’t afford that. I don’t make the most money out there. I work for retail. And the whole process of trying to find insurance has left me sour and cynical. I remember years ago just calling a provider and getting hooked up. Now you have to jump through so many hoops it just leaves you feeling like a circus chimp ready to rip off someone’s face.

What really pisses me off, though, is the fact you have to wait an ENTIRE year just to enroll for health insurance. Why? You don’t have to wait a year for car insurance. You don’t have to wait a year for home insurance. Why do you have to wait a year for health insurance? Shouldn’t you be able to purchase it at any point when you’re ready?  It’s fucking ridiculous.

We should all demand of our representatives that they put in measures into the system, or something, that opens up the availability of insurance all throughout the year and not just at some designated point at the end of the year where maybe not everybody is in a position to sign up. It would certainly make life easier. Also, if I can’t afford health insurance, what on God’s green Earth makes these idiots think I can afford the penalty for not having it?

Open Enrollment and this overpriced system needs to end. Those of us on the bottom, us sorry little dregs of society, can’t take the crap anymore.