the problem with free will

Being born was not a choice. Sure someone chose not abort me, but I was born without much knowing it. Earliest memory may have been seeing a movie when I was a few months shy of turning 2. I had no choice in those memories being my earliest, but I certainly remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back in a theater. I sat on an aisle seat to the left of my father. I remember how excited I was to see Darth Vader in the ice caves of Hoth.
I had a Darth Vader birthday cake when I was 4. Probably came from Kroger. I remember my 4th birthday because I was excited to share my favorite Little Debbie snack with my daycare, but the memory of the cake has been re-enforced by pictures. The daycare was the second one I used to attend. I remember the previous one vaguely, but it was run by some of the same people and a lot of the same kids were at both places. First place seemed bigger and more like a school. I remember eating a taco shell in a cafeteria. I had a favorite teacher, Miss Toni. She eventually came to the 2nd daycare. I really liked her. I remember a few kids, but I mostly remember Miss Toni. I felt special there with my green cot and my raised area for exercise.
I remember the biggest dilemma of the day was whether to use my blankie as pillow or blanket during nap time. 
None of these memories were of my own free will, but rather my reacting to the will of others being forced upon me. Those actions molded me. I always felt like I was different and needed to be treated in a certain way. Not sure if it was contempt, but I never felt the need for other kids. Kindergarten was pretty much the same, but I remember being disappointed in first grade when none of the kids with whom I played were at the school... they all went to the Catholic school which didn't offer kindergarten. I made a couple new friends, but I believe they were in a different reading class, so I felt left out. I don't know when it occurred, but I know I was annoyed by the lack of control I had over most things except for what I ate during lunch. I usually only ate the snack and cut carrots.

Comey Firing

Trump fires people. He was made super famous by the catch phrase, right? Reality tv and reality may not be the same, but there's elements of staged drama in all that Trump does. Comey being fired was a timing thing. It was inevitable given his botched investigations into anything relating to the Clintons.

Reforms beyond Healthcare

If I were POTUS, I would first do a top-down analysis of the budget.
I would track where every dollar was gained and spent.
Off the top of my head, I can think of the dubious ROI we have in Education and Criminal Justice.

What's the point of education? What's the point of criminal justice?

Personally, I believe that the end result of a High School education would be able to function as an independent adult. The two most important classes probably are health and home economics.

Today, everything is focused on STEM. STEM for the sake of STEM seems to be the thinking behind the focus.

I have nothing against science, technology, engineering and math, but if an emphasis were put on all the STEM elements relating to Health and Home Eco, people would understand why their diet matters or how to budget for college.

Probably the most important classes I had in college were critical thinking and probability. Both have taught me skills to be able to judge fake news properly.

Criminal Justice is just a money black hole. Criminals aren't reformed when they are given sentences that put them in contact with other criminals. Housing and feeding criminals only to release them worse off than when they entered is dumb.

Crime prevention starts with reducing the reasons crimes are committed.

Why do men rape women? Why do men rob strangers on the street?

Is rape about sex?

Is robbery about money?

I say men, but women and can rape and rob, too. Just getting to the root of why will reduce the prison problem.

Learning about healthy sexual relationships and gainful employment could be incorporated in my Health/Home Eco curriculum, but in a perfect world these lessons would be learned at home from one's parents. Parents aren't aware of so much in their children's lives, so what happens at school is separate from what happens at home.

Parents are busy, so it's easy to neglect the changes in their children. Forcing parents to be active in their schools could change this narrative. Parents have little knowledge of resources if they aren't aware they may need them.

Childcare and jobs programs could be created with the funds saved by fixing the holes in the criminal justice system.

Healthcare vs. Health Insurance

The Affordable Healthcare Act is a flawed law. I've essentially had health insurance my whole life, but AHA didn't make my healthcare more affordable. My insurance has been through my wife's employer most of the past 15 years. I qualified for insurance through Target in 2003 and accepted it since my dr wasn't in the network of my wife's insurance. My wife was 8 months pregnant and I was able to sign her up. Pre-existing illnesses don't get you denied insurance when you are in a big company. We kept my wife's insurance and had double insurance until I dropped it a year later. My dr was  then in my wife's network and the money was needed to pay for a car. Didn't need 2 insurances, but it was nice not having co-pays and the primary insurance had a cap on coverage for my son so it wasn't going to pay for well-baby shots after $500 was billed. Target family insurance was $70 a pay check, while my wife's was... I think $125 a month.
When I worked for the hospital, family insurance was $125 a pay check, thus double my wife's insurance, while the network was only doctors associated with the hospital, I think.  I didn't opt for it.
I forget when it happened, but my wife's employer started taking out $125 twice a month between 2007 and 2010. Our premiums went down after ACA passed, but we no longer had co-pays. Her employer had a high deductible policy, so we paid for everything until we hit the $2,500/$5,000 deductibles.
Sad to think I miss the days of co-pays... for I think we've paid at least $4,500 out of pocket annually since 2012, not including the premiums.
I'd have to look at my wife's W-2, for it's listed on her payroll deductions towards HSA.
I now have insurance through my employer for $6 a month. Saving $100 a month by being off my wife's insurance, but it goes up drastically for children, spouses and family. Might be a savings if I dropped kids from her plan, but we've spent a bit towards deductibles, so it would be dumb to switch now. Nothing I need would go towards a deductible  to make it worth staying when I'd be kicked off in December. Her employer doesn't allow for spouses to be covered if they are eligible for insurance elsewhere.

weird dream

Funny how dreams come and go. Most of the time the memories are of people or places. Dreamed of an old friend, but the dream got weirder each moment aside from being in a hotel evidently owned by Donald Trump. My friend was teaching or performing in the building when there was a robbery. She was wearing yoga pants, I think. I know one robber wasn't wearing pants. My son was in the dream. I think he was learning yoga or listening to Trump talk about his desire to be president. I don't think my old friend noticed me. The robbers' getaway was like in a movie with a leader shooting a stooge for mouthing off as they drove off in a convertible.

why I have three children

I don't care either way about a lot of things because in the grand scheme they don't deal with me.

In theory, I'm anti-abortion for I would never feel right about terminating a pregnancy unless there was no baby to be born. I love my wife and our union brought about our three wonderful children. None of my kids were "Oops" babies in that J said she wanted a baby so I complied. For economic reasons, they are spaced out by 4+ years, so that there's a ten year difference between youngest and oldest.

Having children is stressful. Each is different, but having had a miscarriage before we were parents made the 9 month wait seem more anxiety filled than I'd like to admit.

I am not going to try to be a phony and push my kids towards meaningless accomplishments, but rather build a foundation for lifelong independence.

China has a lot of men needing wives, right?

I don't know numbers, but China had the one child per family law a while and the culture favors males. Not saying only boys were born, but I recall hearing it being disproportional.

I always figured they'd become a generally gay dominate country, but I got to thinking that maybe they could take our spare women since we have more women and alot of men in prison who may come out indifferent to their partners' sex upon release.