floundersgreatadventure

Now here’s a good topic what do you want to know and what do they want you to know. After sixty some years of watching the news I’ve seen go from a truly informative non opinionated format to one that shows only that particular person on agenda. In other words all you see or read in the news today is slanted to someone, usually someone rich, personal point of view. If they do show you something of value they will drown you in interviews with a hundred different people who really don’t have a clue but want their fifteen minutes of fame. They also can delay telling you something so that you don’t react to it, for instance down here the other day the Farc blew up a railroad carrying coal to port for export. This story was a blurb on Yahoo so later in the day when the news came on down here Jeff and I were interested to see what they said. What they said was noting not even a mention on the banner at the bottom of the screen. It did show up briefly two days later when there were more current events happening. In the US they just tell the story but inject their opinions as editorial comment. Take a look at the various stations now and see the various reasons given for the government shutdown and who was to blame for almost causing the collapse of the economy. So the next time, you read or watch a news item do me a favor take it with a grain of salt and not as the gospel truth and make sure you really want to know the truth before you start looking for it. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

Well today is the 2nd anniversary of this blog we didn’t get the average one a day that we had the first year because well the longer you do something like this the harder it becomes to find new stuff to write about. Jeff and Ruby have gotten into a routine so there isn’t a lot of new stuff there and I tend to sleep a lot now that we have a nice quiet home. The holidays are almost here and with them come family gatherings and a lot of noise so you’ll probably see more stories from here that doesn’t mean that Jeff will stop writing his opinions it just means there might just be some interesting stuff to read about. Well this is Flounder about to take an anniversary nap saying CIAO from Medellin.

Well looks like the debt crisis is over for the moment so I decided to see what else I could write about that would get people riled up and Jeff came up with a hum dinger. Let’s talk about Bruce Springsteen is he this generations poet laurite or is just a great entertainer. I think he’s just a great entertainer even though he thinks he’s the second coming of Bob Dylan. Now Jeff met Bruce maybe 44 years ago in a bar called Casablanca down the shore in Brielle. Jeff was there drunk as usual when the bartender said “Hey you got to meet this guy he plays in Asbury Park and he’s really good. Well nobody else seemed to know who this guy was but Jeff turned around and started talking to the young man who was very quiet speaking. As for what they talked about? Like I said Jeff was drunk, but he did go and see him the following weekend in Asbury. Now this was the time when all the bars had house bands they played up North in the winter and at the shore in the summer some were really good but most were just cover bands. Bruce was a cover band but he sneaked in some original stuff and it was pretty good what was really cool was that he got everybody excited with his music he was and still is one if not the best live band Jeff has ever seen. But, and here is where people are going to get pissed his music doesn’t have a lasting message like Dylan or Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. People will remember his music because it will bring back great memories but not because of any social message it contained. His music’s messages are too now and not something that you can listen to 20 years later and apply the words to the world now your own life maybe. His music will evoke found memories of wind and surf not fear of a war and the accompanying military Draft. Bruce will never be a Bob Dylan or any of the others I mentioned his music will not transcend several generations but it will make people Smile. Sorry Bruce this is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.

I know I’ve mentioned the world’s fresh water shortage before but I don’t think I ever offered my personal solutions so here goes. First make washing a car a crime with a huge fine and possible jail time. Second stop the sale and use of automatic sprinklers to commercial buildings, the grass doesn’t need to be watered during a rain storm. If the insist on having green in front of the building paint the cement green. Third home owners who want that great lawn can buy artificial turf. These are not final solutions your still going to need to get Global warming under control and do something about population growth but there a start and they make sense. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin home of the best water I’ve ever tasted.

This post was very upsetting to write and will probably upset some of you. Actually I hope it pisses you all off and you tell everybody you know about this and maybe something can be done. When I originally stared to this one I was going to do it about Colombia but when I went in search of a photo I discovered this was a worldwide problem. The subject called Virgin auctions of young girls and boys who are Virgins. In Colombia the street gangs, which are nothing more than muscle for organized crime, go to the poor sections of Medellin and buy the daughters of peasants. Most don’t object because if they do they end up dead. The really sad part is the girls don’t object because they will get nice clothes and all the drugs they want plus money. Their willingness is part of the culture of prostitution that exists in a lot of countries outside the US. I also found photos relating to Australia and Germany as well as others. It goes on in America but instead of buying the young people they find the young disenfranchised ones and ply them with drugs and the promise of money. But like I said down here they inter the world of prostitution willingly. I have even heard stories of girls graduating college and rather than get a job turn to the sex trade for a career. Just so you understand if they’re 18 and are doing it without a pimp involved it‘s legal down here. It never ceases to amaze me how degenerate human being can be to one another just as I think maybe your making some progress stories like this happen. This is a thoroughly disgusted Flounder saying Ciao from Colombia.

I just thought I’d give you a little info into why Jeff and I write this blog, considering that about 4 people read it on a daily basis. When we started this it was going to be about my daily life in a new country, well that got boring fast so we tried to keep up with family and local events and that too soon got boring. It might not have been boring for you but it was for us and were the one writing the stupid thing. So now with the world becoming a little more screwed up every day and people becoming more complacent we decided to stir the pot a little. What you see in our blog now are our opinions based upon what we read and then interpret. We don’t say this or that will definitely happen or when we think it will we just take the information that is out there and express it in a quick blurb and try to get people thinking about hat particular issue. We don’t have any idea if it works but one can hope. We don’t always agree either but we respect the others viewpoint as we hope you do. Well that’s all I wanted to say this is Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia.

I have an interesting question for all of you. What would the world look like in 20 years if we solved all its problems in the next year? Let’s say we cure cancer, stop global warming, reduce infantile deaths, stop heart disease from being such a killer, stop all wars and plaques. What do think will happen? Well I have an opinion and it’s this we would be in worse shape than we are now. The birth rate in the US is expected to around 18.2% over the next twenty years or a growth rate of 22%. The death rate will be about 8.39% that’s if all the disease and famine stays as it is now but if we cure the above diseases people might feel comfortable in having more kids and you know in the underdeveloped nations there would be more kids being born. Now we’re going to have all these people around and they will be getting older my question now becomes where we get the fresh water for them where do we get the food for them where are they going to live. Here’s the truth we need all those bad things and then we would still need to control population growth in some way, probably not something we would like, just to survive. This might sound pessimistic and Jeff and I have been called that before but if you get on the net and start searching and do the math I’m afraid you’ll find that I’m pretty dam close to being right. When you do this remember if we fix everything the growth rate will increase but the death rate will decrease. This is a truly bummed out Flounder saying CIAO from Colombia

The US government remains in shut down and everybody is blaming everybody else. The Republicans are now saying it the fault of the American worker and they want to take away thing the average person has spent his or hers entire life paying for. You know what? Maybe there right let’s look at it and see if we can tell. First we’ve let ourselves become slaves to the rich. How you say? By not be able to do without all that technology you know the new car, the new phone ,TV, internet, and “smart phones.” We keep buying them because they made us believe we can’t live without them so that means we have to make money and how do we do this by working for the same people who are selling us this stuff. That makes us slaves to our own desires. Second how do you think these politicians got to where they are today? We elected them and we keep electing the same ass holes. Because hey we’re getting our stuff so they must be doing something right. If that were true then we might not be where we are today but the truth is they want stuff too but they want better and more stuff then we have and they think they’re entitled to it because by electing them we’ve said they are. Here’s a novel solution lets elect different people, people that are not Republican or Democrats but people that want to make sure that the US stays around for awhile. Now I know I’ve reached the point in this blog where people who are actually reading this are beginning to fall asleep so I’ll stop for now and as things get worse I’ll be back with more. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin.