I can’t wait until this guy finally retires.

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That won’t stop him from talking. He’s hall of fame material. TV cameras are going to be shoving microphones in front of his face until he’s dead in the ground. Judging on the sports press coverage during the lockout, they might even shove microphones in his face after that.

If Ray was talking about the loss of 2011 season as a hit to the economy, then Ray needs to think a little bit more before he speaks. Especially if he plans on fake-laughing it up with Shannon Sharpe in a couple years.

I know the system is broken. I know how my money is spent. The difference between us is that I believe we should work on stopping those pregnancies before they occur rather than just leaving people–and innocent babies to starve afterward. And I believe societies have a responsibility to take care of their children rather than throwing them into shelters and assuming they’ll be resilient while making sure we don’t overtax our billionaires as we bail out our irresponsible banks and Wall Street firms. Not all poor people are LAZY.

I don’t mind if some of my money goes to entitlements for people less fortunate than I am. I mind that most of it goes to support the wealthy and priviledged.

If we could actually see what’s going on in his thought balloon, Ray (sitting home in the moonlight, brooding & wearing a purple smoking jacket) is musing (suddenly, a knife comes flying in from the streets below through the open window) …”NFL fans is a superstitious, cowardly lot, so I must strike fear into their hearts… I shall become … The ShankRay!”

Yeah, that all sounds great. Here’s the reality:

Buying fresh fruits and veg, lean meats, and whole grains costs twice what it costs to buy junk food.

Some people simply don’t have the mental wherewithal to do anything other than menial labor. And working 60 hours a week at McDonald’s will not pay daycare for one child, let alone daycare plus living expenses. And the state refuses to consider the government-sponsored daycare so many other nations have. So we have to pay people to stay home with their children.

Once the children reach school age, something still has to be done with them after school is out. And no one wants to fund after-school programs. You can’t leave the kids home alone because latchkey kids soon create their own problems in society by turning to crime and drugs and producing babies of their own.

You can tell people you won’t provide welfare if they go over two children, but what if they get pregnant anyway? It happens–especially since no one wants to distribute birth control or provide sex education in schools. Are you going to pay for an abortion? Nooooo, not with tax dollars, you’re not. You can’t force a mother to give up a child for adoption–that brings you back to the Nazi scenario. So are you just going to leave that child to starve, punishing an innocent baby for the sins of the parents?

My dad grew up picking cotton, and my mother worked two jobs from the age of 13. My brother the lawyer’s first job was digging ditches, and I never stopped working through three cancer battles. I’m no happier about busting my butt and handing over a third of my earnings to taxes than anyone else is. But these problems aren’t so easy to solve. And I’d rather face God knowing my money helped feed poor children than knowing it subsidized oil companies and bankers. And if we’re going to cut something, let’s stop hemorrhaging $$$$$–and lives–in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

As a hard working lower middle class family it makes me sick to think that if me and my wife would get fired,enjoy 12 yrs of unemployment or whatever ridiculous amount of time we’ll run up our deficit to pay people to NOT look for work ,and then to top it all off continue to have babies to keep the welfare checks comin in we might actually be better off(my kids delivered for free,any health problems paid for) while i give the insurance company plenty of $ just to have them want to cover nothin without at least three phone calls makes me want to puke!No wonder people get so used to doin nothin it’s a vicous cycle that must be broke,and some people will fall by the wayside but all great change comes with a price.

Wish as a free marketer you’d have that need-for-oversight talk with airraid77

Read the comment from redskinsrt. It’s just about having an outlet–and spending time watching games or working on your fantasy rosters instead of roaming around with nothing to do. Football takes up a lot of time–and it can be an outlet for letting out frustration and aggression in a nonthreatening way.

Spending more time with the kids? Gosh, my family bonds over football

@getweird4u …

Well, thanks for that thought. Do you have any suggestions for how to persuade poor, ghetto-stricken people to stop having babies? About 15 or 16 years ago, a community in New Jersey was experimenting with paying poor people not to have children. The program was pretty successful but there were big outcries against it from all sorts of groups. Any other ideas? Partisan groups fight any attempt to educate kids on birth control, much less to provide birth control. You can’t force people not to have children. Well, the Nazis did, but we’re not the Nazis.

There are those who DO live for football (and we ALL know these types of fanatics, i.e. the movie “Big Fan”). But the heart of which he was referring to were those who’s livelihoods depend on football. Stadium workers, small and large businesses, grounds keepers, security, etc. Couple that with an economy where finding a job is often near impossible or finding a job where 5,000 other people aren’t applying for the same position.

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That isn’t what he said at all. Way to take something and turn it into something extreme. Did you even look at the full conversation or just look at these few lines and decide that was enough?

Indirectly yes there could be a very slight rise in crime but nothing significant. If you look up crime rates there are several things that seem to effect them.

Completely agree about Wall Street racketeers and corrupt politicians. They are the worst kind because they betray the public trust, do it repeatedly and often do it for a lengthy time. As a free marketer, even I see the necessity for intense scrutiny, oversight and severe penalty for lying, cheating and embezzling in each of those arenas.

But Wall Street is closed on Sunday, so there is little they can do if the games aren’t being played.

And I still fail to understand how not having the NFL play games this year will increase crime. Think about it. It will be millions of people not sitting in bars or their basements watching TV. Maybe they’ll do something positive instead, like cut their grass or spend more time with their kids.

Of course, your argument is about a certain type of criminal behavior. But realistically, I’ve been repeatedly victimized by corporate con artists, bankers, and politicians lining their pockets with my money and have never been victimized by an American from the projects. My aunt worked 16-hour days nearly 35 years for the same company only to have them decide–just as she retired–to kill their pension plan. And the people who made that decision were probably born in nice middle- and upper-middle-class homes. They took a lot more from her than anyone would ever get in a purse-snatching.

I agree about executing violent offenders. But I consider bankrupting America an act of violence. Let’s start rounding them up on Wall Street.

We all know the real reason crime will rise, no need for me to repeat it. This is so funny!

That’s a great question and it actually leads to my next point which is, in the course of determining what factors lead to criminal behavior, one of the prevalent factors is poor or abused childhoods. Which is, of course, an indicator that some people are having children that they do not have the resources or capabilities to raise. So yeah, these types of people should stop having kids. Dude, in some cases, we are subsidizing the breeding of criminals.

I’m not a “it takes a village to raise a child” kind of guy.

And I don’t care of it’s Paris Hilton, Paris France or Paris Jones. If you break the law, you get punished! And I think I said we should execute violent offenders. That’s a bit more exacting than being someone born in a tough spot.

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How bout getting a job!!! Crime is a choice, not a destined way of life.

Why not choose to go back to school, choose to be a positive influence somewhere, choose to stop blaming everyone else for your problems!!!

That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life Ray…….

He’s the Barry Bonds of football, minus the tainted records. (but plus a, uh, RECORD).