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2009 Is a’Knockin - Vinny and Jess look back at 2008

December 31st, 2008 at 12:47 am

So here it is: the beginning of a new year. So many questions loom ahead. What did I learn from the previous year? Do I have any expectations for this new year? Who will I meet, who will I continue to know? Will I decide to paint the house this year? These stand to be answered, but for now I am pondering over memories of the past year.

It was a more quiet type of Mardi Gras that brought together a closer knit group. No Miami for us, but instead Vin and I chose to exchange vows to honor our lives together, and with it had one hell of an after party. This led to a great summer full of hard yard work and a lot of water fun style get together; thanks for the pool parties Heather! And the float trips with everyone, we will never forget! This summer also brought a lot of great nights dancing with friends at Moon, which was a balmy summer treat. Summer closed, but did give us two beautiful additions to our friendship circle in the form of Tej and Alexander. It will always be a blessing watching them grow. We even watched as great friends had the opportunity to grow wings and fly away to warmer waters as we freeze our tails off in the St. Louis-style winters.

Even though we all tend to stay close to home during the cold months, thank goodness for Myspace and Facebook to keep in touch with one another! I know that wherever we end up on a weekend, whether it is Dubliner, Dante’s or someone’s front room, it will be filled with faces that make me comfortable and make me smile. I have chosen to fill my life with people that laugh, can dance a step or two, and also do not mind me sleeping over when I can’t drive! I hold all of you dear to my heart and can’t wait to see what the future holds for all of us.

Thanks for reading our blog and continuing to give us support, it means a lot! We love to keep in touch with our friends and we love keeping our friends in touch with each other. One day, 20 years from now, these photos will matter! Just nobody try to run for a government office, hehe!

Cheers, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year from Vinny and Jess.

Salute!

The end of our Nation’s social and economic problems: The Benefits of Legalizing Drugs in Our Country.

December 13th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

This was a paper that I recently wrote for my European Philosophy class. Some of the elements are obviously joking as this was supposed to be written in a satirical style, but at the same time, they are all true and serious.

“The end of our Nation’s social and economic problems”
written in the satirical style of Jonathan Swift, By Vinny Troia

Today, I will propose a solution for many of our nation’s problems through a single law. Poverty, immigration, welfare, homelessness, war and healthcare concerns would all slowly be eliminated after the passing of this law. No more would we have to worry about our economic conditions and the welfare of those who are unable to provide for themselves; No more would we have to worry about the war on terror and the many ways that we are inadvertently funding it; And no more would we ever have to worry about a system of government poised on controlling what actions we take with our bodies in the comfort and privacy of our own home. Today, I propose that all of these concerns would be alleviated with the legalization of drugs in our society.

First and foremost, it becomes a question of ease. Throughout history, man has used its technological advancements towards easing the process of achieving its goals. Why should this situation be any different? We have put so many ineffective safeguards to try and prevent the use of drugs, that all we have actually accomplished is the increase of a person’s individual anxiety and reasoning for additional use of those substances. Why should I be put in harm’s way for indulging in something that I choose to do in the safety and comfort in my own home?

Let’s consider an average drug deal. At any given time, the person trying to acquire the drugs is constantly worrying about either: the fear of being arrested, purchasing bad product, or even being put in a compromising position by people whom they don’t trust. There is always an underlying fear of that black market society because those situations have all occurred in the past. The legalization of drugs would eliminate those crimes, including additional crimes of feuding drug lords trying to control segments of land through their narcotic influence.

These people who are so careful and cunning in their businesses might actually be put to good use once their products became legal. It would open a completely new market of opportunity for people who have always felt like ‘they don’t have a chance.’ We now have a way to make these people productive members of our society and stop them from complaining that they have never been given any opportunities for success. New businesses would spring from the ground and poor communities would improve through the new lack of crime and increased revenue generated for their cities. New corporate leaders would emerge and lead their communities in much the same way that they already have been; the difference is that there would be secure government regulation to ensure that the consumer is protected.

However, their protection should be limited to the quality and consistency of the product that they choose to use. Users will always be users and addicts will always be addicts. There are plenty of people in our current day who spend every dollar they have on alcohol or gambling. The fact that they choose to abuse legal products does not make their additions better or worse. If we truly want to help these people then we need to educate them and we need to provide new avenues of help for them. We need more money to accomplish this, and even though it may seem like a ‘catch 22’, that money will come from the newly taxed revenue which would be generated by the same products which we are trying to help them avoid.

Fortune magazine estimated the potential tax earnings from legal marijuana sales at $11 billion per year, and that only accounts for taxes on the marijuana, not including taxes on the income generated by the legal sellers, distributors, and producers (Kupfer, 1988); and that’s just marijuana! The resulting income given back to the local community and state would be much higher if all products were legalized, and as a result, we would ultimately divert a significant portion of our existing tax dollars for more appropriate uses. According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 249,400 inmates for drug offenses in 2006. That means states spent approximately $16,846,970 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,149,144,050 per year (Sabol, 2007). Over 6 trillion dollars on imprisonment, which could be used towards the development of education, medical facilities, and other community projects!

Our economy is down and we need a way to boost it, immediately. We need a way to create jobs and products that would reduce the amount of items which we import. Drug crops would breathe new life into all segments of our society from farmers to large scale entrepreneurs and corporations. Most importantly, it would regulate where the money was going and how it was being used.

Personally, I don’t like the idea that whenever someone I know is purchasing something that will do nothing more than increases the happiness of their evening, those profits are funding terrorism! Terrorist organizations in almost 30 countries now finance their activities, to a greater or lesser extent, through the highly profitable trade in prohibited drugs. With the decline of state-sponsored terrorism, terrorist groups were forced to find other means to finance their activities, and could nonetheless reap enormous profits from the sale of prohibited drugs. 3

The United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention estimate that the retail value of the illegal market is $400 billion per year, which would put it ahead of the petroleum industry. 4 It’s time for us, as a society, to group together and start profiting from the events that we already know are occurring, and will occur regardless of our efforts. What’s more is that we, as a people, don’t have the right to dictate what a person can choose to do with their lives.

Professor Luke Schwarz of Stamford University wrote: “According to our constitution, one of our most cherished rights is the right to ‘the pursuit of happiness.’ However unappealing or shallow pursuing it through mind-altering substances may be, we must still protect people’s right to do so. Although no article of the constitution explicitly secures the right to ingest such substances, there is likewise no provision for Congress to legislate against such ingestion. The ninth and tenth amendments clearly state: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” and “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Therefore, personal rights need not actually be in the Constitution.” 5

So why are drugs illegal? I can’t answer that question. I can only say that I know how these laws have affected me and those around me. John Stuart Mill, in his essay ‘On Liberty’, argued that: “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”

I can tell you first hand, that I have never injured another person, nor would I put myself in the position to injure anyone; but my potential actions of self indulgence would still be considered illegal. The legality of what I choose to do with myself can, and will, put me in a more dangerous position when, and if, I choose to engage in those activities. My risk would increase through the dangerous situations of purchasing a product under unknown and unsupervised settings, and the potential harm of using an untested and un-regulated substance, ultimately leading my money to help fund anti-American groups who would use our own money to wage a war against us.

A Reminder That I Am Alive and Kicking

December 8th, 2008 at 1:32 am

Haven’t been to my own page lately. Life has been busy. I am in school, studying my brains out and I must say, I feel the same as I did before I started school. That will pass as more credit hours fly by me. I shall be a worthy advesary to someone writing Excel Spreadsheets one day. Hehe.

I know that I am not a fall girl, but it was a pretty fall and we went on many walks together to glimpse at the colors of the trees. Of course we snapped plenty of pictures to remember them by. My favorite fall memory of 2008 will definitely be the trip to Lone Elk Park. It was the most beautiful day and we were hangin out with my mom to take some great pics and (hopefully) to catch a glimpse of the Elk that stake claim to this area. We were not disappointing. They were out in full force, buffalo too!  Lone Elk Park is just a few minutes from out house, so it was a treat close to home.  Vinny is in the process of uploading the photos and I am glad that we can share them with you. Halloween seemed to creep up on us and then fly by, and I was a little sad to see it go because Halloween is a great night. We enjoyed it to the hilt, horns and all.Vinny played a groovy set at The Kastle which was exciting to me. He doesn’t play out much; being in the front end is not his “thing”, but once in a while I get me a little Vinny Troia on the decks and I danced for hours. It was great.

Thanksgiving wasalso a blessing to me and mine. My father got to come in and visit with us, which is a rare treat and all went well. Man, he can make a mean turkey and  am glad that we got to enjoy it. There was turkey for a week in different forms after that. You know the drill; hot turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey kabobs, turkey soup (soup????), etc. Everyone brought a little of their own flavor and flair to the dinner table and VOILA!, the meal was complete. After that, a few soft pillows and we all settled down to watch a good movie. I was so content.

During this couple of months, I have been working. Just a few hours a week, to get a little “people” time, but it is at a store called “Ulta” and I really like it. I am a hairdresser there, and it feels good to be behind the chair again. It feels like alot to handle all at once for me, work and school and house and child-but I am juggling well.  In fact, I had a little time on my hands this weekend and decided to go to Cherokee and window shop. The cold did not hinder as I really enjoyed the carolers and cookies. Now I am in the mood to decorate with cheer and tomorrow will be a day filled with holiday music and the tug of war that will ensue between the dogs as I dig through Christmas memorabilia.

I will definitely let you know how it went….

Pete Tong features Vinny Troia’s Magic on Fast Trax

November 28th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

Vinny Troia’s new single with Jaidene Veda, “Magic” was featured on this week’s edition of Pete Tong’s Fast Trax show. View the video below which includes a sample of the song.

What Grinds my Gears: A Critique on government and regulations fueled by Thomas Hobbes

November 13th, 2008 at 10:43 pm

I had to write a philosophy paper on Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher from the Enlightenment period. His writings were a critique on humanity and government. One of his main themes was that government should have full control over our lives. At first glance this sounds silly, but one of his points was that everything we have today is a result of things we have put into motion. We’ve already willingly chosen to give up so many of our rights, that we should just give them all away because we don’t deserve any of them.

Hobbes may be a pessimist, but boy have we ruined our own country! Where the United States was once a proud, advanced nation, we are actually moving backwards in development. The rest of the world has actually surpassed us technologically. I won’t even get into the medical breakthroughs, stem cell research, and other developments that we are losing due to some mistaken sense of morality. The rest of the world doesn’t hate us, they are laughing at us.

Today was a very eye opening day for me at work. Did you know that the rest of the world was streaming video on their phones 4 years ago? How very strange since the US carriers finally started supporting broadband communications this year. I’m sure it has nothing to do with big cell phone company monopolies. The last thing we would want is an open, shared communication network with the rest of the world. Ever hear of a crazy thing called 3G? Asia and Western Europe had it in 2002! But hey, better late than never.

Here’s another perfect example: Have you ever wondered why they make you turn your cell phones off on an airplane? All of our advanced technology and a plan can’t withstand a few radio waves of traffic? Actually, that’s not true. They have invited special “airplane” phones that actually transmit radio frequencies on a highly sophisticated “satellite” networks. For just $6/minute, you can use the latest in telephone technology and actually have your voice sent back and forth to distant satellites, over the same radio waves that are supposed to be harmful to the plane. Maybe they’re using “lasers”.

Uh huh. I don’t think so. Check out this article for a detailed story:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-95986.html

The real reason is that when you’re so high up in the air, and moving so quickly, your signal will actually hop to other providers faster, making it impossible for the cell phone companies to track the origination of the call; in other words, they can’t bill you for it! If a cell phone company can’t bill you, then they lose money. So what do they do? Throw even MORE money into the pockets of politicians and lobbyists who support big government agencies like the FCC and the FAA to come up with some bogus story of just how fragile a plane is. I challenge anyone to find me actual scientific proof showing me that cell phones are dangerous to planes. Even better yet, I challenge you to try using your cell phone the next time you are on a plan. I bet it will work.

It’s a sad world we live in, but we have no one to blame but ourselves. We chose this. Maybe not directly, but we choose our representatives. We vote them into office and we have the power to stand up against it. The sad part is that we don’t.

Why I’m voting for Barack Obama

November 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Let me first start by saying that I don’t trust Barack Obama. He has continued to be a true politician and change his story on certain issues the closer we get to the election. I just heard a radio address where, in the last 3 weeks, his speeches continued to ‘revise’ his definition of the ‘middle class’. It’s very possible that he was tailoring the speeches to the particular audience that he was speaking to. More so than that, Obama’s history is extremely sketchy.

Not even getting into several of the radicals that he has been affiliated with, it is quite clearly documented that he (and several other high level democrats) have been some of the biggest beneficiaries from the Fannie May housing nightmares. If anyone is interested, I have attached a very brief PDF presentation that highlights how he, Barnie Frank and several other democrats continued to profit from a plan that Bill Clinton helped pass, which allowed banks to allow loans of up to 120% of a home’s actual value in an attempt to “give lower income people an equal opportunity to purchase a home”.

Click here to view the Fannie Mae profit PDF

I think John McCain’s heart is in the right place. I think he has an old school way of looking at topics and, for a republican, he is actually pretty liberal in a lot of areas. I think McCain’s economic ideas are sound with a simple premise: The harder you work, the more you will benefit; and companies (not people) are given more tax breaks because those tax breaks will lead to more jobs. As a small business owner I have seen the most return on my taxes in the last two years than ever before… and why not? I worked my ass off. I deserved it.

As far as Sarah Palin goes, I will make this simple analogy: For the last three years, I have run a successful record label, Curvve Recordings. But just because I have been successful at it, doesn’t mean that I would be qualified to run Warner Brothers.

Now back to Senator Obama, his plan is a bit different. He proposes to raise small business taxes in order to help pay for other people to go out and do something. I’m not exactly sure what that ‘something’ is because if they were motivated enough to do it, they already would have. So I guess my money will go to help support the welfare system. I’m all about continuing to give money to people who spit out babies faster than I can type. Sign me up!

But the reality of the situation is that even if Obama believes his own rhetoric about ‘spreading the wealth’, it doesn’t mean that his plan will be put into action the day he is elected. The wheels of our government move very slowly, and a simple understanding of our legislation process will show that our country was designed so that a single person could not be in absolute control over our policies.

First, the bill can only be introduced by a member of congress (House of Representatives or congress), not the president. Once a bill is proposed it has to go to the Senate and be voted on. The current Senate majority lies with the democrats at 51 to 49. So the odds are in his favor, but you need to really examine the situation. You’re talking about a bunch of extremely rich individuals whose motives are easily swayed by lobbyists and the amount of money that is put into their pockets. All of these people own homes and stocks and probably make up the bulk of the people who will actually be affected by Obama’s ‘Capital Gains Tax’ increase. Do you really think that it will pass? And if so, how long would a process like that drag out?

If you would like to read more about this our nations’ lengthy, 13 step process legislative process, please visit this website: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa010899.htm.

I hope I’ve done my part in showing just how limited the scope of the president’s powers are. But that’s not to say that he doesn’t have significant influence, and that brings me to my point:

Barack Obama is a great speaker. He motivates people. For the first time in a long time, we have the opportunity to put a friendly, intelligent face on the cover of America. This election is about choosing the right leader, and in the face of national and international policies, we need a man who can persuade people around the world while still being respected. We won’t be able to properly address foreign policy if world’s nations aren’t behind us.

This election is empowerment and motivation.

What better way to tear down the stigma of racism than with a Black president? I honestly believe that this will prove to be the final chapter in a long line of racial segregation, because there won’t be anything left to say about the subject. A black man will have achieved the highest possibly position within our government. And whatever he chooses to do with that power, there will always be a number of people who, for the first time, now believe that someone is on their side. That’s a very powerful motivator. And even for those who lower income people who don’t fall into that category, they will still feel like someone is on their side, fighting for them, because Obama is “for the people”.

On the other hand, If McCain is elected, most of our country and probably most of the un-educated people around the world, will just see it as another rich, stuffy old white guy being elected who will only focus on making sure that the flow of money continues to stay in the hands of the rich. But we all know that the reason America is so great is because everyone already has an equal opportunity for success. It just comes down to personal motivation.

So the truth is that I am voting for Obama because I am holding on the hope that his election to office will be the catalyst for motivating people to go out and work harder. I am betting on an positive emotional response to an already bad situation that can’t be fixed with more economic policy. Certain people need help and need to feel that they are receiving it. I am basing my entire vote on the hope that even if these people don’t directly get the help that they need, it will be their own beliefs that will give them the motivation to extend the extra effort to achieve their own goals.

Some people, like Jess for example, think this idea is a bit far fetched. To my loving wife, all I can say is to look at any Church around the world. People continue to go to church and pray in the hopes that someone (or something) will continue to look out for them. There has never been any direct interaction between God and people, yet people continue to believe out of hope; and that hope gives them the power they need to succeed for themselves.

That’s why I’m voting for Barack Obama. The rest will fall into place, just like it always does.

My Daughter’s First Lesson

October 21st, 2008 at 2:24 pm

I do not write about my daughter much in this blog. I keep this blog separate, it is more for the Vinny and Jess side of my life. I do not feel that including her in the “outside” area of my parenting realm would be the right thing to do. But I have to share this, for it is a sad for me.

Yesterday she was very mad at me. I don’t let her ride in cars with friends. Too bad, so sad. She is fifteen and I am not ready to lose her. Even though I rode around, probably with my parents never having a clue, this is different. It is different when the child is yours. Anyway, she was very mad. she thought she was “nerdy” to have to sit and wait for her friends to come back from riding around. I wonder where they are even going. I guess cruising? Do teenagers even cruise anymore? Whew, I feel old.

I explained to her the dangers of teens in cars. I explained that she and the others would probably be in tune with each other and talking and not paying attention. Curves come out of no where and if you are not paying attention, well, you know what happens. She thought I was a terrible parent.

Until the call came last night.

My daughters best friend, the girl she spent every single day with over the summer, was killed in a car accident yesterday. She was riding around with other teenagers and they lost control of the car at a very high speed. I am in shock, to say the least. This is not real yet, as she called me “mom” all summer long. She was a sweet girl, with a whole lifetime ahead of her. This is a terrible tragedy that did not have to happen. I am not judging any parent, but this is the exact reason why my daughter hates me right now. Because I won’t let this happen to her. And I am glad that she hates me. That means she is listening, but mad to do so.

I just wanted to say, don’t give in if you are a parent out there. This is my daughter’s first death of a friend and she will mourn her hard. I will do everything in my power to properly honor her for my daughter, but at the same time, pray that she thinks of this at night, when it is quiet in the house. Maybe parts will sink in.

Hopefully this will always be in her mind when the group just wants to ride around. A parent’s wish; a parent’s prayer.

Rest in peace, Jenny.

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