Ethics in America, and the problem with the government.

Yesterday I was at the doctor's office. While sitting and waiting for my appointment (a 3 hour wait is typical) an asian man walked in with a garbage bag. He barely spoke english, but new everyone and everyone knew him. He placed the bag on the counter and everyone came running like he was Santa Claus.

He then pulled out close to 100 DVD's of today's newest movies currently in theaters. Movies like Harry Potter, Hairspray, Rush Hour 3, Ratitouile, Transformers, and much more. The nurses, receptionists, and even the doctors were buying away. Patients then started to take notice and made their purchases sometimes fighting over who was going to get the last copy of Hairspray. Each DVD was only $5, came in a poly sleeve and included a picture of the movie.

What boggled my mind was one of the doctors actions. He came out of his room where he was seeing a patient to "exchange" 4 movies he had received the week before because the quality wasn't good. Can you imagine the nerve? Paying $5 for a stolen movie and then demanding quality? Forget the nerve, can you imagine the ethics? I guess the hypocratic oath says nothing about purchasing pirated DVD's.

I sat there in amazment at what I was seeing. Don't get me wrong, I am not that naive to not know people are selling pirated movies and many people are buying them. I know of the stories of watching DVD's and seeing people throwing popcorn in the air and hearing people talk and laugh, and one report of a screen so dirty that you could see the soda stains in the movie where people threw their cups of drinks at the screen. No doubt in protest of a Michael Moore movie. But what I was witnessing was different. The attitudes of the people was astonishing to me, and more so, the doctors!!!

I chalked it up to greedy Americanism... Yes, I am still a republican conservative.

But today topped it off.

I just read an article about how the pentagon paid $998,769 to ship two 19 cent washers to a Texas airforce base. I at first assumed it was a pentagon problem and it was some glitch and a typo got through or something. Turns out, a company owned by 2 sisters (twins) found a flaw in the government's payable system. Any purchase order marked priority and eventually desitined for a war zone (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) was paid without questioning shipping charges. Over the past few years, these 2 women discovered the flaw, and started charging massive amounts of shipping fees, each growing over time and totalling over $20,000,000 that's 20 million dollars for what cost them $100 in shipping costs. These were things like machine screws, washers, and other small hardware items which mainly cost less than $1 and I would assume could be purchased at a local hardware shop. (read full story here)

Now that brings up many issues:

1 - The ethics of these 2 are staggaring, yes. But the GREED of these two is even worse. Imagine if you were so inclined to steal and found a good thing, would you not be thankful for the free money and charge just under what would be considered unsuspicious? Would you not think that maybe SOMEONE, even someone totally incompatent might suspect a $1,000,000 shipping charge for a bill totalling 38 cents? Sorry, but these two deserve to be tried as traders. (By the way, one has since died. I hope the burns from the flames hurt like the place your now living!)

2 - A perfect example of the staggering incompetancy of the government and further PROOF as to why the government should be limited to what they control and can do. As if the motor vehicle department wasn't proof enough, maybe Hillary should take a look at this before she embarks on one of her socialized medicine tantrams.

Wake up and smell the Starbucks people!!!! As a republican, I am all for making money and living a nice life with the money you earned. But remember those 7 deadly sins? Do we need a lesson? No, it isn't that America deserved to get attacked because of our greed, that is just stupidity! It is however we need to attack ourselves (no, not with planes Mr. and Mrs. conspiricy couple) by looking in the mirror, and smacking ourselves back to reality.

We need to:

• see what we have and not what we have not
• know what we need, and not what we want
• hear what people mean, and not what they are saying
• feel how others feel, and not only what we feel
• wake up and smell the coffee, but don't drink it at $5 a cup!

Come back tomorrow, I will be talking about some of my favorite stories on this same theme.

In the meantime, go in peace, help others!