I Have Questions...

Radio, Television, Internet, Magazines and Newspapers. No matter what your choice, we are able to find news at our fingertips. Yes news, informative, riveting, breaking, up to the minute, award winning, insert your own here _________. News, twenty-four hour, first news at noon, news at five, news at six, news at ten, news at 11, insert your own here ________. We are truly inundated with the news. Why do we need all this news? I'm not sure, but I would appreciate news when read, or heard that would not leave me with more questions after reading or hearing the story being reported.

Let me give you an example. The other day I was reading an article provided by The Associated Press in my local news rag on how the U.S. Government was going to invest 90 million dollars over the next three years in Laos to rid that country of 80 million unexploded bombs, that were dropped there over a half century ago by our military turning Laos into the most heavily bombed country in history, by raining down over 2 million tons of ordinance.

WHAT? 80 MILLION UNEXPLODED BOMBS? WOW!

Associated Press called that a relatively small sum for the U.S., but a significant investment for a small country in one of the poorer corners of the world. I suppose if you compare it to the National Debt it is a small sum. For a moment though, let's consider those figures. If we divide 80 million bombs into 90 million dollars, we come up with a figure of 1.125 million per bomb to rid Laos of their existing problem. Not exactly a paltry sum.

Now comes the I HAVE QUESTIONS part. Questions I think The Associated Press (insert reporter here ___________ ) should have asked or at best provided answers to in their article.
1. Who counted the bombs?
2. Who provided this figure to Associated Press?
3. Who will be doing the work to rid Laos of these unexploded bombs? (the article stated the people were losing life and limbs to this day)
4. How are these bombs going to be disposed of? Are they going to be detonated, disarmed, scrapped, buried, or dumped into the ocean?
5. If the answer is scrapped, who gets the scrap money? Maybe the U.S. can recoup some of our investment.
6. Why are there so many unexploded bombs still there after all these years?
7. Can these bombs be reused?
8. Who was the manufacturer of these bombs?  I'm sure the U.S. bought bombs that were supposed to work. Imagine if you paid for a fireworks display for the Fourth of July and 40 percent of those fireworks didn't go off. Hey! I want a rebate. I've been had. I'm not paying you. You ripped me off.
9. Do you think the manufacturer if other than the U.S. should help pay for the clean-up effort?

Now, this article stated there were more than 10 bombs for every one of the country's 7 million people. Well I'm not a reporter but a quick search of a few internet sites stated there were 5,924,000 people in Laos. Also these sites stated that the country is 91,429 square miles. Doing a little math that would be 874.99 bombs per square mile. Wait! I guess I have one more question. If you're the reporter, should you not be a little closer than a million or more people?

The article also stated that our President was the first President to set foot in Laos since those bombings over a half century ago. I do have to commend him for that. If the U.S. has given tax dollars in reparations to other countries for wartime acts, then so be it. But, and I mean but, WE THE TAX PAYING CITIZENS OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY deserve a better explanation as to how our tax dollars are going to be spent on this clean-up project.

Since that article first appeared in our local news rag, another article was reported from Washington. This one told us how the U.S. was going to provide the military of Israel with 38 billion in U.S. dollars as assistance. (largest batch of military assistance ever given to another country) Now all of this was a behind-the-scenes agreement that had been reached by the two countries. Further in the article it states that the total was 3.8 billion (not 38 billion) which was up from 3.1 billion the U.S. gave Israel for the previous 10 year agreement although the officials haven't disclosed the exact sum. You guess which figures are correct. More informative news. Thanks!

In closing, I'd like to offer a suggestion here with a question. Why don't those negotiating the agreement with Israel reduce that dollar figure? Now let me be clear here. I harbor no ill feelings against Israel or their people, but if the dollar amount was reduced by a half billion dollars, we could give that to Laos instead of 80 million since it is a lot poorer than Israel and we could rid that country of all of those unexploded bombs and still give Israel 3.3 billion which would be more than the previous agreement.

Anyone have any answers?



Out of Bounds Contributor

The Bottled Water Conspiracy

The next time you walk into a store, any store, take a look at the prices of all of these various brands of bottled waters. They are more expensive than the iced teas, sodas, gatorades and any other drinks on the market. What do they make these drinks out of? Where do they get the water from that these drinks are made out of? Is it sewer water, or what? Is it straight from the garden hose? The sodas and other drinks have to be more expensive to make than the regular bottled water. What about all of their ingredients and chemicals? That high fructose corn syrup can't be that cheap! How can plain water be more expensive? Now, you may say that the bottled water is specially filtered, they use reverse osmosis, the water comes from some special natural spring water, or fresh mountain streams. No way!

In our opinion, it's a conspiracy. These water corporations want us to believe that their water is special and pure and we should pay for it. But what about these cheap bottled waters on the market? The brands are endless. Every store in business has their own brand of bottled water. Are these waters straight from the tap? The answer is yes. The truth is, these companies are not required to put their sources on their labels. This year, some companies will begin to state that their water comes from public sources. More than 25% of these companies get their H2O from public water sources. Should you stop drinking these bottled waters because they get their water from a municipal supply? Maybe.
For the prices spent on these bottled waters, you can buy a quality filter and get the water straight from the tap. It will probably be better for you than drinking it from the bottle. The next time you reach for that $4 bottle of water, stop, go home and fill up a glass with your garden hose. You'll probably be drinking the same thing.

JP

Crooks Using Bluetooth to Steal at Gas Pumps!

Cell Phone Secrets! Are they watching you?

And the Oscar goes to?

This election season is the biggest joke yet. It's all a game. All a show. Hillary- no way. Trump- ha! This is just a scripted puppet show now, with the powers that be pulling the strings. They will put who they want in to take orders and we can't do anything about it, but pray. The presidents make 250k per year, or whatever it is, but when they get out of office, that's when they start their speaking engagements, tours and big business endorsements. Then, that's when they cash in on all of the favors and the kick backs and get paid millions for what they did in office, for these controllers.

I can't even turn of the conventions. These people at these conventions cheering and getting into fights.... for what? If they really believe anything these clowns are saying they need some serious help. We're all in trouble. We're gonna do this and we're gonna do that...sure they are. The people in the audience are like drones and just bow down like sheep to the slaughter. Meanwhile with the news media ...it's all you see. What happened to the Zika scare? Ebola? The hungry? The poor? Can't find it on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, nowhere.

Then there's the emails. Why is this a shock to anyone that the whole system is corrupt? Not to us. If we knew the truth, we would all be terrified. That's why I'm writing in Rich for President. So, when you go to the ballots this fall vote Rich for President!


JP

Poke'mon NO!

As if people aren't on their cell phones enough, some ad wizard has to come up with the stupidest game, ok, stupidest nonsense of all time. People are actually going around on their phones looking for imaginary creatures and thinking they accomplished something when they find one. These people must have too much time on their hands. I was thinking of starting a new app called Cut JP's Grass, or better yet, Wash JP's Car. The app can give them a prize on their phone, or some sort of bogus score to make them feel good about themselves.

Some may say it is just a video game, the same as Tetris, or Super Mario Bros. with new technology. Those games didn't have people wandering around like fools, getting in car crashes, robbed, hurt and lost in the process. How about going outside and not being on your cellphone, going for a walk, or bike ride and interacting with someone and not an electronic device. This too is just another fad. Sure, it's probably summertime where you live, but soon the weather will get cold and wintertime will come, then you can kiss this Poke'mon game goodbye. How do I know this? Iv'e seen the people playing it. They won't be outside in the cold. By then, they'll be back indoors with a new Facebook app feeding their online fish. For me it's Poke'mon NO!

Adopt a Television Series

Imagine this for a moment if you will. It is Sunday night and you have your favorite snack in hand along with your favorite beverage of choice. You settle into your favorite chair, or sofa and reach for the remote to turn on the television. Oh, how you waited all week long for your favorite show. Finally a GREAT new REALITY TV SHOW that is worth watching. This show is about REAL people, no staged reality here, just pure true reality. No fake acting, no staged settings, no trained actors, nothing but REAL LIFE television. A television show about something that most, if not all people like and care about (NO, NOT THE KARDASHIANS). What I'm talking about here is a show about CUTE BABIES. You would think that everyone likes to see cute babies, right? Now not only is it about cute babies, it is about HAPPY ADULTS too. Who doesn't like to see happy adults? I know I do, and I'm betting after one episode you will be happy too.

So what is this show? This new series is called AMERICA ADOPTS. It is a television show about real adults adopting real babies, like I said NO FAKING IT HERE, just real people, real situations, real settings, real life. This is a show where TV helps disheartened adult couples who can't have children of their own and can't afford to adopt children have a child that they have always prayed for. What a beautiful show!

Do you know that the average cost in the United States to adopt a baby runs between $10,000 and $40,000 and up? Average cost to adopt from a foreign country can run anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 and up. Now I don't know about you, but I don't think those costs are very conducive for a young couple just starting out in married life, to try to have a child through adoption. Let's say this couple are both working to save for this child, and both have decent employment, he is employed by GM and works for that GREAT starting wage of $14.00/hour and change, she works for her local government and makes that new starting wage of a whopping $10.00 an hour. Quite a while to save to be able to afford a child, given all of life's other obligations. BUT WAIT! PRESTO! Here comes ADOPT AMERICA television, a series that picks up the tab for adoption with all the advertising money, network money, donations from the generous AMERICAN PEOPLE who can afford it (maybe a PBS series) and even the GOOD OL' U.S. GOVERNMENT. With the help of all involved, who knows, maybe we can eventually wipe out children lingering in foster care. Just the thought of it, wish I was a TV mogul. AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL taking care of AMERICA'S MOST BEAUTIFUL. Look at the dollars paid to some of the supposed reality (PLEASE READ PHONY HERE) shows, House Wives this or that, Naked this or that, Honey you know who, Dr. Whomever, Jerry ? and Judge Your on the HOT seat.

What a BEAUTIFUL SHOW!

Back to reality though. I suppose if you look at some of these shows, reality is really UGLY. So, if there is any TELEVISION MOGUL out there reading this, please take a chance and make a dream for me a reality for some couples. I was fortunate to have two children of my own thirty plus years ago, and blessed with three beautiful grandchildren, so I know what a blessing it would be for those wanting to have a baby, but can't afford to adopt. Let's make adoption as simple as turning on the television and watching REAL REALITY TV.

Please leave a comment. Let me know if I'm the only one who feels like this, or if I'm out of touch with REALITY.

Thanks.

Out of Bounds Contributor