Words of Truth

Today is my son’s tenth birthday. Gifts and such. Last night I took him to an Indianapolis Indians game (minor league baseball). He had a lot of fun, but it was kind of late for him. The game was over at 9:45 and we didn’t get home til 10:30. This is a kid who goes to bed at 8:30 at the latest.

Being sick stinks. I just got over shingles a few weeks ago, and now I have some kind of upper respiratory infection. I don’t know if it’s a bacteria or a virus, but I have a 4pm doctor’s appointment. Hopefully I will feel better soon. I was feeling better yesterday, but I guess all that fresh air was bad for me 😉

I need to switch from nights to days at the hospital for my health and my family. They have an opening in the ER on days. I might try for that one.

Anyway, that’s my life right now.

Evidently April 24th was Equal Pay Day.

http://www.pay-equity.org/day.html says,

“Each year, the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) organizes the national observance of Equal Pay Day to raise awareness about unfair pay for women and people of color in America. Equal Pay Day is observed in April to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. Tuesday symbolizes the day when women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the previous week. Because women on average earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. For women of color, the wage gap is greater, as shown in our fact sheet”

I would like to know exactly what jobs they are talking about. I can’t think of a single job that I have held where the women were paid less than the men in the same position. I am a nurse at a hospital. I make the same as the nurses around me. I have worked in the financial world (at a bank AND at a credit card company), retail (for two different retailers), foodservice (for several restaurants), shipping (for two shipping companies), and I have held jobs in different levels at several different healthcare facilities.

You aren’t supposed to talk about how much money you make, but almost everybody does. I have never heard a person complain that they weren’t getting paid as much because of their gender or race. The main complaint that I have heard again and again is that people are not being paid for their loyalty/experience. As in, “I have worked here for X years, and they are paying the new people the same amount that I am making, after X years of working here!”

Show me real statistics. Show me a specific job where men make more money than women, not these “median” figures. You could probably even out this whole deal by NOT counting the coaches and athletes in the NFL alone. Of course the MEDIAN is different, because a woman working as an actuary (assumedly the highest paying profession) will NEVER make as much money as, say, Peyton Manning (with his $100 million contract).

Two things I would like to say about the Virginia Tech Massacre:

1. I was listening to Charlie Gibson interviewing some VA tech students on his “World News Tonight” program a few days ago. He asked them the stupidest question I have ever heard. The students described a scene where they had barricaded the door of their classroom and were then lying on the floor. They told how Cho Seung-Hui was trying to get through the door, and fired several shots through the door over their heads. At this point, Mr Gibson asks them, “Were you scared?” Is this a rational question? This was not a cub reporter, a rookie. This was the TOP reporter at ABC News. I wanted to be one of those students at that point, just so I could ask Charlie, “Did your mother drop you as a child? Of course we were scared!” Why do reporters do this? Some tragedy occurs, and they ask the victims, “how do you feel?” That should be in Journalism 101: Don’t ask questions that everybody already knows the answer to!

2. The second thing I want to state has to do with gun control. I am all for gun control. Weaver stance is best, but as long as you have a firm grip, you should be able to control your gun just fine.

I have seen several “news” reports (really opinion pieces) about how we need stricter gun laws and limitations on buying firearms because of this tragedy. Let me clue you in on a little secret: PEOPLE BREAK THE LAW ALL THE TIME! If Cho was not able to get his guns legally, he would have bought them illegally. Instead of limiting firearm purchases, I believe we should expand them. Yes, limit firearm purchases (no ex-felons/violent crime, no insane people), but don’t bar law abiding non-crazy people from buying them AND carrying them. I believe that our colleges and universities should require their faculty and staff to take firearms proficiency classes, and carry their sidearm into the classroom with them. Just a suggestion.

Heard on the news that there were hundreds of rallies all over the country protesting the governments “lack of reaction” to global warming. I read an article about these rallies. Who was the first person they quoted? A 12 YEAR OLD! Give me a break. Now the radical environmentalists have their own brownshirts!

Global warming is ridiculous. It’s not even supported by scientific data. Loads of scientists state that it is blatantly false, and there is no evidence to support the claims. So what are we doing even talking about it? I’ll say it….

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!