1. I feel like since the moment I turned 18, everything I come in contact to in my life is "out to get me." Every decision about anything remotely important (or even non-important ones) have to be scrutinized with a microscope to make sure no body is trying to screw me over. Case in point: banking. From what I know of banking back in the day (at least, from what Mary Poppins taught be about banks back in the day), it used to be that you put your money in a bank because they were trustworthy, and you felt like they would be responsible with your money and keep it safe. Now days, it seems like you have to pick the bank that will screw you over the least, the one with the least amount of fine print or the least amount of hidden fees, etc. And it's not just banks. It's rental agreements, mortgages, utility bills, insurance or medical bills, and the list goes on. Just an observation.
2. If you haven't been keeping up with the news, Ohio is one of the states where there are big anti-labor union bills being pushed through the legislature, and there are subsequently massive amounts of protests going on every day at the state house here in C-bus. This bills, SB5, infuriates me more than I can even begin to explain. All the arguments for it are totally inane, and while it might end up helping the state's budget deficit in the long run, I don't understand why public workers, particularly those that work in education, are first on the chopping block? What happened to "I believe the children are the future?"
The big argument our governor is using in favor of SB5 is that public workers pay so much less for their benefits than private sector workers and that they get higher wages, too. So, SB5 is supposed to close that gap and make things more "fair." It's no secret that government jobs come with much better benefits that most private sector blue-collar jobs - that's why people take them in the first place. What I don't understand is why we're not trying to pass legislation that will bring the private sector jobs up to the level of the public sector jobs, instead of trying to pull a whole sector of workers down. I also don't understand why we're trying to cut benefits to education and to blue collar workers (those that belong to labor unions) to close the gap in our budget deficit, instead of tapping those who can actually afford it already. Why are we still giving tax breaks to rich people and huge corporations? Oh, yeah, because it supposedly "creates jobs and grows the economy." (Also, I hate that phrase "grow the economy.")
But, really, all of those arguments are moot anyway, because the real reason all of these states are trying to pass these anti-labor union bills are because the Koch brothers, and other Big Corporations like them, are pulling the strings in the GOP. (And that is my Glen Beck-like conspiracy theory rant for the day. Except my rant is founded on more factual things, like the Wisconson governors actual conversation with who he thought was a Koch brother. Ha.)
3. The "Heart Beat Bill". Some members of the Ohio legislature are currently trying to pass a bill that makes it illegal to get an abortion after the first detectable heart beat of the fetus. According to the bill, that is usually around the eighteenth day of pregnancy. Let me first of all state that I love babies, I'm not for abortion, but that I am pro-choice. How can that be, you say? It's easy. I don't think people should get abortions, but I do believe in a woman's right to exercise her own agency, but that she must accept the consequences that that will bring. The thing that I don't like about this particular bill is , that it totally ignores the precedent set by Roe v Wade. Hands down. Hasn't this issue already been decided? Like, back in 1973? If it passes, it will be the strictest abortion legislation in the entire nation. This is why this bill makes me upset. Not to mention my personal belief that this bill is setting women's rights back a billion years.
4.I was going to talk about what's going on in the middle east, but I'm exhausted and I think I need to calm down, so I'll just save that for another day.
5. If I have offended any of you, I'm sorry.
Okay, my rant is over. Done. I feel better now. I really didn't write all of that to convince any of you, dear readers, to think the way I do. I don't really care what your political views are, because they're your views. All I care is that you vote. Mostly, I just wrote it because now that I got it all out of my head, I feel better.
And, I'm off to bed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
