COULD YOU ?
October 2, 2014
Here’s a question which has been asked before (not by me). Do you think you could kill another human being? Now some will say I guess so if my life or my wife or kids were threatened. How about the guy who just stole the parking space you sent the last 15 minutes waiting for? Well it’s been said that everybody is capable of killing given the proper motivation. But what stops us from killing that parking space thief? Is our upbringing or we afraid of being caught and going to jail or is the prospect of the guilt we’d feel. It’s funny but most of us that don’t go around killing people have lots of reasons not to. But that still doesn’t answer the question are we capable of killing? I think we all are humans get a perverse since of euphoria when the kill an insect or other vermin they find in their homes. They get huge feeling of guilt if it’s a domestic animal, at least most people do. Remember humans are the only thing on this planet that kills for sport. So what do you really think do you need the treat to your family or are you like Jeff hurt an animal in front of him and he will beat you till someone stops him. he knows this because it has already happened to him he knows what he’s capable of because of past experiences with his temper. He keeps that part of his temper well under control. But he and I both believe all humans are capable of violence that we find repugnant in others. That’s the thought to chew on for today. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia>
ALL ABOUT ME
October 1, 2014
Well today’s all about me; as you know I help Jeff write this blog, sometimes doing it all by myself like today. The reason I don’t want Jeff help today is because this is about me, and I don’t want him putting his two since in and screwing this post up. Most of you know if you’ve followed this blog that I’m a cat. What is referred to as a tuxedo cat because my coat looks like you got it a tuxedo. Originally this was going to be a blog all about me but I really don’t do too much exciting and I’d rather sleep and let fats do his thing. Today I thought I’d let you in on a secret Jeff is thinking about writing a book all about me. I told him I didn’t think I had enough interesting adventures to write about. I further said I would be more inclined if he wrote maybe a kids book where I could be a detective or maybe a private eye and could have a beautiful chic as a partner. Well he said the whole idea was just in the early stages he has to finish the re write of his last book Death Comes Home and then finish A child Gone Missing which has been on hold for awhile. Then of course he’s going to America for a couple of weeks, leaving me here by the way. So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what he comes up with. Remember when I said I prefer to sleep well I’m headed to the closet for a nap. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
GOOD AND EVIL YOUCAN’T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER
September 30, 2014
Last night I was watching an old episode of Criminal Minds and I was intrigued by a comment made by the Character Doctor Spenser Reed to the Character Morgan. They were talking about believing in good an Evil and made the point you can’t believe in one without believing in the other. Well if that’s the case and you believe in Zombies then there must be good Zombies as well as bad. You know like Vegetarian ones versus the brain eating ones. By the same token if you believe in demonic possession you must believe in Godly possession. For some reason when people think of others who claim to possessed by God they’re reoffered to as whack jobs. But those that claim to be possessed by a demon are OK just evil. I believe there is a balance that has to be maintained in the cosmos. You know the Yin and Yang principle where for every evil there must be a good. So going along with this idea if here are bad Zombies then there has to be good one and if demons can possess so can Angels, Saint, Gods or whatever else you want to represent good. I think the idea of vegetarian Zombies is pretty cool I don’t know how they would fight the brain eaters but would make for good comedy. As for Good and evil I’ll stick to the balance theory and with that I’ll throw in reincarnation. Hey let me know what side you’re on and for those that just want to say that I’m bat shit crazy, BITE ME. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
CAN’T THEY JUST DO THEIR JOBS
September 29, 2014
Don’t Mondays just make you go out breath in that fresh fall air then throw up and go back to bed? Well don’t worry I won’t be writing about that today. Instead I decided to take a look at what they call midterm elections. These might determine who controls the Senate. I have to say I really don’t give a shit who does win. What I would really like to see is, them actually do some work. It seems that running for political office is like putting bids in for a paid vacation. I can’t figure out why Americans are so complacent these days that they would people who are supposed to represent them screw them whenever they get the chance. It seems the rest of the world is getting the same way. Whatever happened to revolutions or mass protests? I know we have some stuff going on in Ferguson Missouri and there were a couple of huge marches against the chemical giant Monsanto and Global climate Change. But when the marches ended everybody went home and nothing changed. Oh it takes time you here. Yeah it does but when these folks go home they need to go to work and pay their bills. You saw this with all the 60’s protesters they all eventually sold out for the big payday. That’s how they control you by making you afraid for your job. They don’t care if you sue them for unlawful dismissal or anything else it rake years to get through the courts and eventually they make a deal hand out some money that the lawyers get most of and nothing changes. I’m not saying you shouldn’t stand up for what you believe in actually I’m saying the opposite. But you have to go about the same way they do by spending money hiring Pr firms and a spin doctor or two. It’s called fighting fire with fire. Ok I’m done for now this is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
YOU’VE PISSED ME OFF
September 26, 2014
Today I’m going to write about how banks, insurance companies and the people who work for them lie to you. Let’s start with banks HSBC to be exact. When we decided to move down to Colombia I needed a bank that was both in the US and here, there were only two left. One was HSBC and the other was Citi bank. I have a lot of unpleasant memories of Citi bank so that left me only HSBC. As it turned out I had a friend working there so I felt comfortable in going to talk to him and that was a mistake. He said I’ll fix you up with a premium account and I said I don’t have the 100,000 dollars to qualify. He of course said no problem I’ll attach to mine. Well things started out good until I got down here and found that the branch here was not affiliated with the one in the US. It turned out they were for sale and soon sold. So we loss free access to our money and now had to pay fees but we were getting the money back because we had a premium account in the US. Then one day I get an email from some woman I don’t know who tells me in order to maintain my premium status I must bring the account up to a 100,000 balance. That didn’t happen and they changed my account to a regular checking account then without notifying us they cancelled the bank card I had and supposedly mailed me a new one. Now that was three years ago and I’m still waiting of for that card. I managed to call them and explained that they needed to send it Fed x or DHL in order for me to get it. Since then they have at time blocked my account because the failed to notice I live in Colombia. When I called my “good friend” Jeff Dzoba informed he no longer was responsible for my account and there was nothing he could do. So that ended that story next we have AXA insurance company whose agent Mike Natale sold me a policy saying just pay 200 dollars a quarter and when you get older you’ll be fine. Well that turned out to be a croak of shit. Recently I went to make my 100 dollar a month payment (that meant 300 bucks a quarter) and found out my policy was expired. I got a hold of the company and they told me that cost increases in my policy now meant that the 100 dollars I was paying wasn’t quite enough and that the longer I lived the more I could expect to pay. These are two examples where your so called friend desire to make money will end up with you being screwed. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
WILL IT EVER END
September 25, 2014
As you know the world is full of conflict right now and I thought we’d take a look at a couple and see what the governments are doing to stop them. First up, the Mid- East and American air strikes to try and stop the advance of Isis. Well if you look at Viet Nam you see we carpet bombed the hell out of the country and accomplished nothing but to unite the country in its resolve to get rid of us. I really don’t think just air strikes are going to make these people go away and if they do tomorrow there will be someone else. The people in those countries have been fighting Christians and Jews since the beginning of time and I don’t see them stopping any time soon. Islam is the second largest religion in the world it’s also the fastest growing one. Now let’s take a quick look at the Colombian civil war that’s been going on for 50 years. The government and the rebels AKN the Farc are in negotiations to stop this war. The government estimates that there are between 5500 and 10,000 Farc fighters left which to me means they aren’t very strong. But the Government is willing to grant them amnesty and forego extradition of the ones involved in drug related offense in the US or the kidnapping of American citizens. When we negotiated with North Viet Nam to end the circumstances were similar we were stronger but politically it wasn’t practical to continue. But instead of coming away with a victory we allowed ourselves to be negotiated into what amounted to surrender. Both are Governments are in the process of repeating errors of our past and it doesn’t bode well for the future. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
DRINKING
September 24, 2014
I felt I should address the drinking problem in Colombia and other parts of South America. The first thing I don’t understand id the capital of Colombia Bogota allowing discos to stay open on the weekend till 6am. I think they do that thinking there would be less people on the streets to cause trouble. Your right it ain’t working all that’s happening is people come out of the clubs a lot drunker. One way to help with the drinking and driving problems in South America is to follow Americas lead in making the bartenders and bar owners more responsible for over serving or serving a drunken person. Enforce the laws governing public drinking make having an open bottle or can of alcohol in your vehicle a moving violation. Jail unlicensed drivers impound their cars and have them first pay a heavy fine before they can get there car or motor cycle back. Sell the impounded vehicles at public auction after thirty days. Making it a crime for the original owners to bid or regain possession of the vehicle. As you can tell one of the big things here is enforcement of the law. That isn’t something you see a lot of in Colombia. They have helmet laws and anyone driving around Colombia knows that most of the time the police don’t enforce the law. They need to make public intoxication a crime not a sign of machismo. If they start tomorrow and keep at it religiously it will still take years to solve the problem. But they will start to save lives right away and that is important. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
RESIGNATIONS
September 23, 2014
Today the news was full of a story about an Alaska TV reporter who quit her job on air by saying fuck it I quit. Now the other stations all responded by saying that was immature and unprofessional is that how you feel? I’ll go along with the immature and maybe unprofessional but it if you’re having problems at work and you’re going to get fired anyhow, it doesn’t really matter how you say it. Jeff has come close by saying screw this take the job and shove it. At times this was not the best decision he ever made but in the long run things worked out better for him. He’s also been fired twice and both times he has later thanked his ex employers for doing him a favor. When you leave a job and it’s not because you have a better offer it’s not going to be pleasant. You may not get bad recommendations your past employer will probably only admit to the fact that you worked there. I have absolutely no problem with this reporter telling her employer off on the air as you’ve probably noticed when other news people leave it’s usually not a hug and kisses, good luck and goodbye sort of thing. She was going to get fired anyway because of conflict of interest. This way she gets a lot of social media publicity and is better known and it was all free. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t think everybody that wants to quit should run in tomorrow and say fuck it I quit. But I don’t think long notices are a good idea either I believe if you have a better job lined up no notice is good enough. In the restaurant business when you give notice you’re usually fired right away and other businesses are similar in their approach to employees leaving. Jeff once hated a job so much he left a note in the cash register saying he quit. What do you guys think I know some of you must have thought about saying fuck it I quit at some time in your career you just never voiced it. This is Flounder, and I ain’t quitting, saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
HOPE
September 22, 2014
Yesterday they had a worldwide climate march to bring awareness to the world of the danger facing it. I don’t know that it will do any good since the people in control; you know the 1% either have their collective heads up their ass’s or are too busy making money to care. But there’s always hope considering 300,000 people marched in the one In the US and hundreds of thousands marched elsewhere. But the big coal companies aren’t going to give up and if they do it might be too late. Jeff has been around a long time he’s seen protests against war and poverty. He watched as a crooked President declared an Earth day and still nothing’s changed much. People believe if you elect a man President he can make change. It doesn’t work that way. He has to have support and that support comes from the people with money and they might look like they’re giving it to him but they’re not. President Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. This might not hold up much longer. This is Flounder Saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia
IS THE MEDIA TELLING YOU THE TRUTH?
September 19, 2014
Today we read that the majority of American are losing faith in there news outlets. Does this surprise anyone? You’d have to be stupid to not realize that the supposedly neutral news media has been taking sides for years. Slanting their opinions to group or another, this of course lends credence to the idea that money controls everything. You haven’t seen any great investigative reporting lately have you? Even the so called free bloggers take sides. I guess it seems we do at times but honestly we try not to. We think all reporters lie, look at one of our favorites Matt Taibbi he left rolling Stone to start his own magazine and nobody has really heard from him since. Sixty minutes one of the most respected news shows on TV has been accused of faking several stories in order to boost ratings. What do you think are your newspapers and favorite TV news people really telling you what is going on or they just trying to prevent you from knowing the real truth. Now I know that our Democratic friends are saying it’s all the Republicans doing and the Republicans are saying the opposite. The real truth is everybody’s lying and it all comes back to the line from the Tom Cruise Movie Jerry McGuire “SHOW ME THE MONEY”. I don’t think much will change in the near future unless something horrible happens that the politicians and bankers can’t blame on anybody else. This is Flounder saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.
floundersgreatadventure 