Thanks John Oliver

On occasion, being a Floridian makes one the subject of ridicule. Much to my embarrassment, John Oliver's favorite target these days is Florida. To the point, a recent segment of his HBO program, Last Week Tonight, included the failure of Florida's judicial system.

The next day, a professor at a local university, Mr. Justin Stone, informed me that the State of Florida was the first to establish a Public Defenders Office. That restored my faith (a little).

Then yesterday , as if in answer to this scathing attack, Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Frederick Lauten quashed twenty-one thousand (yes 21,000) arrest records, and put an end to the debt-collection policy, effectively eliminating Florida’s Debtors Prison. Yeah, that’s a thing. Well, it was until John Oliver pointed his laser ray of humiliation on it.

On behalf of at least 21,000 people… Thanks, #LastWeekTonight

Fiscal Cliff Explained so Everyone can understand

Someone posted this on my fb page crediting “The Angel Clark Show”. I am a centrist, so I did not agree with everything on that page, but the message here is still thought provoking.

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“Fiscal Cliff” put in a much better perspective.

Lesson #1

US Tax revenue $2,170,000,000,000

Fed Budget $3,820,000,000,000

New debt $1,650,000,000,000

Recent budget cuts $38,500,000,000

Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.

Annual family income $21,700

Money the family spent $38,200

New debt on the credit card $16,500

Outstanding balance on the credit card $142,710

Total budget cuts so far $38.50

Got it? OK, now…

Lesson #2

Here’s another way to look at the Debt Ceiling

Let’s say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood, and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceiling. What do you think you should do?

Raise the ceiling or remove the shit?

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