Robots are coming, and with good reason.

A former CEO recently announced why many retailers and food chains are entertaining using robots instead of human workers. He was gracious in only saying that it is cheaper in the long run to pay $35,000 for a robot to bag French fries than to pay an inefficient human $15 (the new baseline for a “living wage”) to do the same work.

When I started out going to college, the basic return on investment period (ROI) that a business should even entertain was three years. Meaning, you had to recoup your investment through recovered wages, increased revenues, or reduced expenses within three years to make it worth doing. That is probably lower now.

A $15 full time worker costs the employer $30,000 a year, in wages only. ($15 x 40 x 50 weeks) The employer is also paying for their vacation time (at least a week). The employer also has to foot the bill for at least basic health care if they have more than 50 employees. A large McD franchise just might. So, buying a $35,000 robot to scoop fries is almost instantly worth the investment. Look at the tangibles.

A robot is not going to call out sick. It might need repairs, but any robot manufacturer is going to bend over backwards to get it fixed. They want to sell more robots. Having them break easily is bad for business. With basic, regular maintenance, the robot is going to save the employer money by always showing up for work. A savvy employer is going to have a maintenance package included in the purchase price–or he shouldn’t be in business.  A human gets paid a benefit (sick time) for NOT coming to work.

A robot is never going to demand Family Medical Leave Assistance (FMLA). It is never going to have a sick mother, or a wife that gives birth so that the robot needs paternity leave. FMLA benefits include 12 weeks—that 3 MONTHS—of unpaid, protected leave time during the 12-month year.  You can’t fire the loafer who is impacting your business.  Sure, you can hire someone in the interim–only to have to spend the time and wages training them–to let them go when the FMLA spongue returns.

A robot is never going to steal from the employer. It is going to do what it is programmed to do. If it is a fry scooper, that is all it will do. It isn’t going to give its friends free fries. It isn’t going to skim cash out of the register. Given that 40-50% of all retail losses stem from internal activity, this could save an employer thousands over a year.

The robot is never going to file a Workers Compensation claim. It isn’t going to cut its finger, or slip on the floor. It’ll never bang its head, stub its toe, spray cleaning chemicals into its eye or anything else on those equals.

The robot is never going to risk a liability claim against the employer by, say, spitting into someone’s food because they are a policeman. It will never refuse service because the customer is wearing a uniform.

So, given the litigious nature of our society, the “me-first”; give me free stuff mentality this young generation is showing us, it should not come as a surprise that employers opt for technology over teenagers. It is our foot. We shot it ourselves. Learn to limp.

Survey proves most civilians are self-absorbed idiots

Mark Dice is the guy who goes around doing “man on the street” interviews, asking people about giving up the Second Amendment for the good of the economy, or the First Amendment because people need to learn to curb their thoughts and speech.

This weekend he did it again in San Diego where he asked several people what they were doing for Memorial Day, or how they were celebrating, or if they thought it was right for the government to cancel NASA’s long standing celebrating of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for Memorial Day. Another angle was how this was the day we celebrate the end of slavery or that the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

It is amazing to see people in their 30’s and younger who simply have no concept of what the “holiday” is for. The final interviewee, clearly military nailed it.

But there was one who refused to answer because as an American she didn’t have to. She’s right, but what a convenient time to invoke that privilege. Another was “all about” the LGBT community and joining them in their celebration. Another female just saw it as a day off work on a Monday.

So, clearly, the majority of American civilians do not understand the meaning and purpose behind it. It is NOT just a holiday, a reason to gather with family/friends, have a BBQ and get sunburned drinking too much beer during the park volleyball or horseshoes tournament.

It is a distinctly military honoring holiday, but even then, most civilians get it wrong. I receive several “Happy Memorial Day” salutations during the day from those who know I served in the Army. I gave up correcting them.

Memorial Day is about remembering and honoring those who fought AND DIED during the wars protecting us and our freedoms. I am still very much alive.

Veteran’s Day is the day to thank everyone who served—regardless of the length of their service.

We are a society in full cratering mode.

A crowd of 300 Muslims beat and strip naked a Coptic Christian woman of 70 years.

You see this pattern over and again in every Muslim country. Christians are singled out and accused of some infraction. Usually it isn’t even true. But the truth is irrelevant to Muslims—only their ideology. This woman managed to hide under a wagon and was helped by another woman who gave her clothes—allowing the woman to escape.

When she did complain to the police, she was harassed and threatened before they did nothing to help.

In Pakistan, a 28-year old pregnant woman was stripped nude and forced to parade through the market by two Muslim brothers. She miscarried during the event. Her crime? She is Christian.

An 8-year old Christian girl was kidnapped, beaten, and left on the street. The girl’s crime? Her uncle was pursuing a relationship with a Muslim woman. The girl hadn’t done anything beyond being related to her uncle.

So you can see where the battle lines are drawn. ANY Christian is a target for retaliation to ANY crime real or perceived against ANY Muslim ANYWHERE.

What would happen if I got a group of my golf buddies, none of whom are Muslim by the way, and headed down to the Parker mosque and single out some female attending there? What if we started taunting, then surrounded them, pushed them around, stripped them, and made them march down to, say, the biker bar a mile away? We’d be hunted down, arrested, and charged with federal hate crimes—that’s what.

We self regulate ourselves to the point of strangulation. Our society’s white guilt is all powerful. Our elected officials abdicate decision making to the voice of polls and the loudest of minorities. It will be our ultimate undoing as a free society.

One dead, 3 hurt in rap concert shooting.

A man, somehow connected to rapper Troy Avenue was shot and killed at a rap concert in New York. Three others were injured, presumably by stray bullets as the gunman demonstrated his unerring handgun prowess. Rapper T.I. (whoever that is) was scheduled to appear at the concert as well, so there could be your motive. The best part? The rapper Avenue, who’d publicly spoken out against gun violence was the one arrested.

Police Commissioner William Bratton perhaps best described it by saying, “The music, unfortunately, oftentimes celebrates gun violence, celebrates the degradation of women, celebrates the drug culture and it’s unfortunate that as they get fame and fortune, that some of them are just not able to get out of the life…”adding that many witnesses were unwilling to talk with police.

You never hear of shootings at a Joe Bonamassa concert. I never encountered a fracas between fans of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan when I attended that concert. Cream and Birds fans didn’t hassle one another when I attended an Eric Clapton concert. No, this only seems to happen at rap concerts. Pattern?

Two are killed and five injured—three critically outside of two separate rap concerts, one in New Jersey, the other, Toronto. (August 2015).

Rapper Young Jeezy arrested after a shooting at a rap concert late August 2015. Jeezy and five crew members were arrested with several weapons including an assault rifle (whatever that is).

I’ve always said, it takes three to make a pattern. I found three in about 2 minutes of searching. I could go on, but maybe my point is made. I agree with Commissioner Bratton.

Glenn Beck has lost his marbles

Glenn Beck has endorsed Ted Cruz for President. This was likely a kiss of death for Ted. Glenn called for a “day of prayer, fasting and humility” before the Indian caucuses. “Beg the Lord not to remove His hand from us. To turn to Him and ask that He heal our land.” I guess the only thing missing was communion and a passing of an offering plate. Maybe an animal sacrifice was planned but it never happened. That would have led to roasting an eating the flesh—and we were fasting after all.

Glenn recently shoved his face into a bowl of crushed Cheetos to protest Donald Trump. He had others on his TV set do the same.

Glenn Beck falls on his knees in front of a rally crowd…

“Real Christians don’t support Donald Trump.”

‘Ted Cruz has been anointed for this time.”

Bonkers. Out of his Gourd. Bizarre. I don’t own any of his books anymore. The guy is scary.

Political Correctness and the Judicial System

1. Hussein set out to make his mark on the criminal justice system. Just as he won’t say “War on Terror: or “Islamic Extremist” or “Islamic Terrorist”, Obama’s Justice Department coined the phrase “Justice Involved Individuals” rather than say criminals or felons.

This is the same Justice Department that dreamed up and enacted The Second Chance program and Juvenile Reentry Assistance Program which seals or helps expunge the criminal record of people up to the age of 24 so that they might apply and qualify to live in tax-payer funded public housing. I guess you can’t if you have a record. But if it is sealed or wiped clean, you can suck off the government teet for the roof over your head. Over 1.75 million tax payer dollars have gone to these programs to help criminals get jobs and housing.

Rather than build more jails to house them, the administration was you to pay to house them and train them for work in the hope—the HOPE that they will stay on the straight path and not revert back to the more immediately lucrative pay scale of crime. Yes, that $10 McDonald’s job where I have to work, be on time, is so much more enticing that just whacking some guy on his way to the bank from the same McDonald’s with the deposit bag.