News Roundup & Commentary (11/11/2015)

Look No Stretch Marks
It's being bantered about that some female celebrities who post their magnificent flat muscular stomachs shortly after pregnancy may be faking it. Rumor has it some of them are using surrogates allowing themselves to be photographed wearing a fake pregnancy prosthetic. Should anyone be surprised if this were true? After all they are actors.

Sticks & Stones May Break My Bones....
Over the last few days we've seen university students going bonkers over what they interpret as being disrespected on campus. Today's students are forcing the resignations of educational leaders by acting up. I've seen several videos where high school and college administrators along with their invited guests tried talking calmly with them got shouted down and physically threatened. A few things to keep in mind. (1) These administrators didn't disrespect them. Their fellow students did. (2) Students who want respect need to give respect in return. (3) Because students ramped up the war over words exchanged it has now escalated beyond that to become physical. Not exactly a well thought out strategy.

Marketing 101
Create faux outrage. (1) Market a plain red cup for Christmas (Starbucks). (2) Have your marketing people rage against them on social sites. Thusly feeding the gullible news media hungry to fill their publications and air-time anyway they can. (3) Sell lots more coffee. No wonder the press is hurting for money. They're giving it away for free. I may not be the brightest bulb, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck either.

Speaking Of Not Just 'Falling off The Turnip Truck'...
Anyone see the video of the guy supposedly sexually assaulted by the two women at a gas station? It's obvious these two were not just some horny girls groping the dude. Am I the only one who sees these two pick pocket's failure. Watch their hands Duh! I suspect the prosecutor is looking to get more mileage out of sexual assault charges then otherwise would for charging them with simple theft.

Morals Clause Doesn't Apply To Some
If someone plays sports very well, chances of getting fired or kicked out of college isn't likely. Same seems to apply to some in law enforcement as well. Kick your spouse's ass... get charged and see how long your job lasts.

Quick Take On Last Debate (11/10/2015)
Trump says he wouldn't raise the minim wage. His reason, Americans already are paid too much if we want to compete globally with other workers. Ben Carson complains he's being far too scrutinized by the press over the last three weeks. Yeah well join the club with Hillary and Obama who've had to endure this far longer and with lots more vigor not only by the press but from congress as well. Huckabee wants to eliminate the IRS and replace it with a national sales tax. Heads up: Rich people couldn't possibly spend all their money. They divert it by investing instead. They also receive all kinds of perks like housing, travel, clothes, food expenses and all kinds of other things far beyond their salaries which wouldn't be taxed to them. The average smuck has to buy these things for themselves. Gee, I wonder who'd get soaked there.

Changes At The Grocery Store
Campbell's soup removed 10 additives (were 20) from it's Chicken Noodle soup. Amongst them were onions, celery, corn starch and vegetable oil. Did they do this for consumers or for creating a cost savings for themselves? Will prices reflect this change to the recipe?

Speaking of changes at the grocery store. Even though the tissues I buy come in the same box at the same price, I noticed the number of them went down from 184 to 170. Baby wipes also went from 80 to 70 count. This too at the same price with the same size packaging just as it has for snack products. Then there's the incredible shrinking ice cream containers coinciding as well.

I grocery shop based on unit pricing. They outsmarted me there too. In some instances they've discontinued the original product in favor of the new and improved products making it impossible to buy the older ones.

The Homeless In NYC
According to a series running all this week on WPIX-TV 20% of the homeless living in NYC work full time jobs. Another 10% work part time. Anyone against raising the minim wage need to reevaluate their objections. I'm not saying entirely everyone in the country needs or should get $15 an hour. However there should be a federal standard applied broken down area by area what it cost someone to survive economically where they live. We can do this either by zip codes or by some other means, but something should be done.

There's no excuse why someone who sweats by their brow for a living should be discounted as being a lesser contributor to this economy then someone(s) who exploited these sincere work efforts thereby unfairly profiting off of them.