Are we still The United States Of America, or should we change that to The Divided States Of America?
On the radio today I heard that "Both parties claimed victory". Each party vilifies the other continuously, it matters not what one says the other has to say the opposite - even when the statement is obviously good for everyone. It seems to me that we are getting uncomfortably close to war between the Democrats and the Republicans. Even more close between the Liberals and the Conservatives!
Instead of a United front (as in UNITED States of America) we are getting more and more divided. Remember the old saying "United we stand, Divided we fall."? Whereas we have more in common than most countries, even though we are a mixture - which I think is one of our strengths - we are exaggerating our differences.
We have overcome our Racial Differences and our Religious Differences more than we have our Political Differences. Is that unbelievable?
We, the people, should be United against our politicians, after all they are United against us!
They agree that we are dumb (We MUST be to vote for them!) They use us as their personal piggy banks. They have figured out that they can "Fool all of the people, all of the time"! We can't even agree that they are raping us, keeping us divided for their own ends.
When the Wife of the President says our children (and ourselves) should eat better, how can anyone argue with that? Surely an innocuous statement, obviously only designed to help. After all, 50% of us are overweight - including our children. I see a statement like that to be designed to help. But instead half of the country is up in arms about it!
Turning on the TV the other day I caught the end of a program about food, unfortunately I only caught the end but the argument was that Artificial food is better than Organic food! I can only assume that some highly intelligent (Not), member of one of our parties had said that Organic food was better for you, and some equally highly intelligent member(Not) of the opposing party HAD to immediately state the opposite.
Why, oh why, can we not see that we should all be on the same side, we have enough enemies out there without making enemies of ourselves. Lets fight our real enemies, the enemies of Our Way of Life, of Democracy, of Capitalism and Freedom, Human Rights and Freedom of the Individual.
That's what I am saying!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Time.
What a strange phenomena is time. I got to thinking about it as we were watching the earthquake victims and their rescuers in Christchurch New Zealand. In particular as we looked at the ruins of the beautiful Christchurch Cathedral. We knew it was beautiful, because we were there, we had seen it, up close so to speak, we had been there and in there. What if we had been in there when that tragedy happened?
Then I got to thinking about the restaurant we had been in when in Egypt in 1990. Just a few months after we had dined there, some terrorists had gone into that very same restaurant with 'guns blazing' and killed - I forget now if it was dozens or hundreds of tourists. What if we had been there a few months later?
Well of course then I said to myself what other places had we been at the "Right Time", as opposed to the "Wrong Time" like those poor unfortunate people with "poor timing"?
The list was pretty long.
There was Tianaman Square in Beijing. We had been there talking with the students and the soldiers just the day before Martial Law was declared and "All hell broke loose"! Missed by one day.
The other places we have been at the "Right" time include London, Bonn, N.Y. and a host of places in England during the Second World War - and there were some VERY close calls for both me and my family then! It's a miracle that I am here.
And how long will that be? That I am here, comparatively speaking, not a long time at all, and possibly a very short time. We just never know, do we?
Make the most of your time here, 'cause you don't go around again!
Then I got to thinking about the restaurant we had been in when in Egypt in 1990. Just a few months after we had dined there, some terrorists had gone into that very same restaurant with 'guns blazing' and killed - I forget now if it was dozens or hundreds of tourists. What if we had been there a few months later?
Well of course then I said to myself what other places had we been at the "Right Time", as opposed to the "Wrong Time" like those poor unfortunate people with "poor timing"?
The list was pretty long.
There was Tianaman Square in Beijing. We had been there talking with the students and the soldiers just the day before Martial Law was declared and "All hell broke loose"! Missed by one day.
The other places we have been at the "Right" time include London, Bonn, N.Y. and a host of places in England during the Second World War - and there were some VERY close calls for both me and my family then! It's a miracle that I am here.
And how long will that be? That I am here, comparatively speaking, not a long time at all, and possibly a very short time. We just never know, do we?
Make the most of your time here, 'cause you don't go around again!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Yes, it is still winter at The Lake.
Two days ago, after several warm days of temperatures in the 60's and even 70, when we were beginning to think that spring had arrived, we had another snowstorm. Not a huge one, but not tiny either, 4 inches is big enough to need the attention of the snow shovel but not big enough to fire up the new snow thrower.
As usual, it looked beautiful. Doesn't it give everyone a burst of 'love of nature' to see that white cloak that hides all the ugly stuff that you meant to clear up?
As I gazed out on it, not yet thinking "where is my snow shovel", or "how cold is it out there", or "do I even need to shovel it", but still thinking, "what a work of art this is". Julia's art is marvellous but even she cannot match this.
Then I thought, "what a perfect day to be having a fire to sit by". So I got on and stoked up the fire that was still glowing very nicely thank you in the wood stove and soon had it blazing away. Perfect.
All too soon it was time to shovel, the snow plow had already gone by and marred the perfection. Soon I was warmly clothed and trying not slip down the snow covered steps. The snow had blown up onto the front porch and frozen. The mail box had to be made accessible and the chickens opened, which meant clearing a pathway across the deck. A big deck had seemed like a good idea - until now! As I shovelled, avalanches of snow began sliding off of the steep roof onto me and onto the cleared areas.
All of a sudden, my Dreamland began to turn into the usual Nightmare, my Snow Palace into a dirty, slushy, mess.
But not to worry. I got it all done and sat by the fire, and enjoyed for all of for several seconds, then the day took over.
Today, it is cold, The Lake has a skim of ice, but it is beautiful, the sunlight is already starting to spread across its surface and I can see the thin ice melting. Two swans are ploughing through it, the Canada Geese will be landing on it soon, the bird feeders are already inundated with birds.
All is well with My World again.
As usual, it looked beautiful. Doesn't it give everyone a burst of 'love of nature' to see that white cloak that hides all the ugly stuff that you meant to clear up?
As I gazed out on it, not yet thinking "where is my snow shovel", or "how cold is it out there", or "do I even need to shovel it", but still thinking, "what a work of art this is". Julia's art is marvellous but even she cannot match this.
Then I thought, "what a perfect day to be having a fire to sit by". So I got on and stoked up the fire that was still glowing very nicely thank you in the wood stove and soon had it blazing away. Perfect.
All too soon it was time to shovel, the snow plow had already gone by and marred the perfection. Soon I was warmly clothed and trying not slip down the snow covered steps. The snow had blown up onto the front porch and frozen. The mail box had to be made accessible and the chickens opened, which meant clearing a pathway across the deck. A big deck had seemed like a good idea - until now! As I shovelled, avalanches of snow began sliding off of the steep roof onto me and onto the cleared areas.
All of a sudden, my Dreamland began to turn into the usual Nightmare, my Snow Palace into a dirty, slushy, mess.
But not to worry. I got it all done and sat by the fire, and enjoyed for all of for several seconds, then the day took over.
Today, it is cold, The Lake has a skim of ice, but it is beautiful, the sunlight is already starting to spread across its surface and I can see the thin ice melting. Two swans are ploughing through it, the Canada Geese will be landing on it soon, the bird feeders are already inundated with birds.
All is well with My World again.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Looks like Gaddafi will soon be gone.
I am watching what is going on all the Middle East. People are rising up. It would seem that they are suddenly realizing what their "leaders" have been doing to them! Ben Ali of Tunisia - gone, Mubarak of Egypt - gone, Gaddaffi of Libya - soon to be gone. They haven't been leading "Their people" they have been dictating to them, and robbing them.
Now I ask you, is that any different than what the Robber Barons here are doing to us? Robbing us. I just saw in the paper that the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage got off scott free. He was made to pay back $67 million. I say made to, he was told to. I wonder if he ever will! But what does he care anyway, it was a mere token - he has $600 MILLION! A million people have lost their homes because of him! He robbed us of Billions of dollars, and he gets to keep his ill gotten gains. He doesn't go to prison for even a short time. He will get a pension from Countrywide, an office and use of a company jet whenever he wants to go somewhere. His victims get nothing. They have no home, no money, no savings, no retirement, many of them are out on the street. He keeps everything. In my opinion he and his kind are worse than Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi. There are hundreds of them out there. The CEO of Wells Fargo was paid $53 Million last year! Taken from you and me as surely as if he had taken it at gunpoint. He just did it "Legally". But how legal is it to take a paycheck of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars when you got that money by manipulating things in the financial community that took the savings of millions of people and put millions of people out of their homes?
The greed of these bankers is beyond belief. They have no concern at all for the people that they have made bankrupt and put out of their homes, in smany cases onto the street. Their only concern is how THEY can screw another million or another billion dollars out of us.
To my mind that is at least as bad as what the Middle Eastern Dictators are doing to their citizens. At least the citizens there seem to have finally been able to make a comeback. Here in America we will never be able to get our money back from the bankers. They have the full backing of the US government, in the form of our politicians, who are completely in the pockets of the bankers. Their retirement years (the politicians) depends upon the bankers.
Hey we just gave Wall Street and the bankers like Goldman Sachs $14 TRILLION in "Bailouts". (That amounts to something like $40,000 for every man woman and child in the US!) And they will keep coming back for more - it's like an addict, they can't stop. I doubt if they will stop even when they have it all, yes even when they have taken every dollar that every American has they will keep on trying to rob us. If you have a loaf of bread that you made, or your chicken laid an egg, they will want that. (And they wouldn't even be satisfied with the egg, they'd want the chicken too. And as greedy as they are they would EAT the chicken!)
And I wouldn't mind betting that we would STILL vote for them to get a lower tax rate. (Or perhaps by then we would have voted for them to not pay any taxes.) what would they do then poor things? I know, they would get us to vote for a negative tax rate for the richest Americans, so they could spend us out of the depression. Give me a break.
Now I ask you, is that any different than what the Robber Barons here are doing to us? Robbing us. I just saw in the paper that the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage got off scott free. He was made to pay back $67 million. I say made to, he was told to. I wonder if he ever will! But what does he care anyway, it was a mere token - he has $600 MILLION! A million people have lost their homes because of him! He robbed us of Billions of dollars, and he gets to keep his ill gotten gains. He doesn't go to prison for even a short time. He will get a pension from Countrywide, an office and use of a company jet whenever he wants to go somewhere. His victims get nothing. They have no home, no money, no savings, no retirement, many of them are out on the street. He keeps everything. In my opinion he and his kind are worse than Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi. There are hundreds of them out there. The CEO of Wells Fargo was paid $53 Million last year! Taken from you and me as surely as if he had taken it at gunpoint. He just did it "Legally". But how legal is it to take a paycheck of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars when you got that money by manipulating things in the financial community that took the savings of millions of people and put millions of people out of their homes?
The greed of these bankers is beyond belief. They have no concern at all for the people that they have made bankrupt and put out of their homes, in smany cases onto the street. Their only concern is how THEY can screw another million or another billion dollars out of us.
To my mind that is at least as bad as what the Middle Eastern Dictators are doing to their citizens. At least the citizens there seem to have finally been able to make a comeback. Here in America we will never be able to get our money back from the bankers. They have the full backing of the US government, in the form of our politicians, who are completely in the pockets of the bankers. Their retirement years (the politicians) depends upon the bankers.
Hey we just gave Wall Street and the bankers like Goldman Sachs $14 TRILLION in "Bailouts". (That amounts to something like $40,000 for every man woman and child in the US!) And they will keep coming back for more - it's like an addict, they can't stop. I doubt if they will stop even when they have it all, yes even when they have taken every dollar that every American has they will keep on trying to rob us. If you have a loaf of bread that you made, or your chicken laid an egg, they will want that. (And they wouldn't even be satisfied with the egg, they'd want the chicken too. And as greedy as they are they would EAT the chicken!)
And I wouldn't mind betting that we would STILL vote for them to get a lower tax rate. (Or perhaps by then we would have voted for them to not pay any taxes.) what would they do then poor things? I know, they would get us to vote for a negative tax rate for the richest Americans, so they could spend us out of the depression. Give me a break.
Corn.
Well so far no one has asked me to tell you all how Big Business, Banks and Wall Street stole at least $30,000 from every man, woman and child in the US over the last few years. Is it because you already know how they did it? Or you don't want to know, have plenty of money so you don't care, are scared or what? (Don't forget the $30,000 per person is an average, if you had more they might have got you for more!) Or maybe you are one of THEM!
So, I'm going to move onto another subject - Corn. You have a bag of corn, you can plant it, or eat it. Eat it and you save maybe $10. Plant it and I'm guessing one seed or kernel of corn will return about 500 kernels, at 3 or 4 ears per plant and what 100 or 200 kernels per ear? So you would have 500 bags of corn from your original one bag.
Years ago we planted our kernels of corn by investing in Schools and Universities. We had a phenomenal return from our education system. America led the world in most everything. Other countries even sent their kids to school here, that's how good the US education system was.
Fast forward to 2011.
Asians, Saudis, Indians, Chinese and others are investing huge sums in education, research and development. Astounding numbers of students are graduating with advanced degrees in Science and Engineering. China's economy is now the world's number two. Their rate of growth far outpaces ours. We invested in education in the 19th and 20th Century's.
So what do we do now? Reinvest? Reinvent ourselves? Redouble our efforts? No, none of these things, we start a new race - I call it "The Race to the Bottom."
Here is our plan, cut Pell Grants, they help the poorest of our students earn college degrees (Many of our greatest thinkers, business builders, educators, doctors, scientists, and so on came up from poverty.). Next, cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, drop grants from Congress to Universities, cut budgets to Higher Education in all states across America, this has the added advantage of shrinking the research they can do, and makes it necessary to raise rates to students. Oh, and lets start the interest building on the students loans as soon as they get them instead of when they graduate.
Well that sounds like a good start doesn't it? We have already dropped from the number one country in the world for student graduation rate to number 12. This should push us way down on the charts.
Our new GOP Congress is determined to cut spending. And this is how they plan on doing it. Don't touch the military, even though a tiny cut would make every other cut unnecessary, don't cut Soc Sec - even though making Soc Sec deductions on ALL earnings, not just on the lowest earners, and maybe raising the age to collect S.S.(at age 65 you were close to death when S.S started, it NEEDS to be raised to save it for what it was intended, a safety net for those who needed it.) Our Health Care system could use an overhaul, why don't we look at every other civilized country in the world who have equal or superior care (they ALL live longer lives than us!) and see how they do it for HALF of our cost - some for a quarter of what we spend!!
But no, lets cut money from those who can least afford it, those who can't fight back, and from our future. (After all, those politicians won't be there when the s**t hits the fan years from now.) They will all be rich, collecting from the Big Businessess, Big Banks and Wall Street that they helped to suck us dry. Why would they even think of doing the right thing and helping the people that elected them - after all we could vote them out and where would they be then, with only a lousy full salary pension for life and the best health insurance available for them and their family. No they need to get into bed with the money people, Banks, Wall Street, Business where they will be taken well care of in their 'old age'.
So, I'm going to move onto another subject - Corn. You have a bag of corn, you can plant it, or eat it. Eat it and you save maybe $10. Plant it and I'm guessing one seed or kernel of corn will return about 500 kernels, at 3 or 4 ears per plant and what 100 or 200 kernels per ear? So you would have 500 bags of corn from your original one bag.
Years ago we planted our kernels of corn by investing in Schools and Universities. We had a phenomenal return from our education system. America led the world in most everything. Other countries even sent their kids to school here, that's how good the US education system was.
Fast forward to 2011.
Asians, Saudis, Indians, Chinese and others are investing huge sums in education, research and development. Astounding numbers of students are graduating with advanced degrees in Science and Engineering. China's economy is now the world's number two. Their rate of growth far outpaces ours. We invested in education in the 19th and 20th Century's.
So what do we do now? Reinvest? Reinvent ourselves? Redouble our efforts? No, none of these things, we start a new race - I call it "The Race to the Bottom."
Here is our plan, cut Pell Grants, they help the poorest of our students earn college degrees (Many of our greatest thinkers, business builders, educators, doctors, scientists, and so on came up from poverty.). Next, cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, drop grants from Congress to Universities, cut budgets to Higher Education in all states across America, this has the added advantage of shrinking the research they can do, and makes it necessary to raise rates to students. Oh, and lets start the interest building on the students loans as soon as they get them instead of when they graduate.
Well that sounds like a good start doesn't it? We have already dropped from the number one country in the world for student graduation rate to number 12. This should push us way down on the charts.
Our new GOP Congress is determined to cut spending. And this is how they plan on doing it. Don't touch the military, even though a tiny cut would make every other cut unnecessary, don't cut Soc Sec - even though making Soc Sec deductions on ALL earnings, not just on the lowest earners, and maybe raising the age to collect S.S.(at age 65 you were close to death when S.S started, it NEEDS to be raised to save it for what it was intended, a safety net for those who needed it.) Our Health Care system could use an overhaul, why don't we look at every other civilized country in the world who have equal or superior care (they ALL live longer lives than us!) and see how they do it for HALF of our cost - some for a quarter of what we spend!!
But no, lets cut money from those who can least afford it, those who can't fight back, and from our future. (After all, those politicians won't be there when the s**t hits the fan years from now.) They will all be rich, collecting from the Big Businessess, Big Banks and Wall Street that they helped to suck us dry. Why would they even think of doing the right thing and helping the people that elected them - after all we could vote them out and where would they be then, with only a lousy full salary pension for life and the best health insurance available for them and their family. No they need to get into bed with the money people, Banks, Wall Street, Business where they will be taken well care of in their 'old age'.
More budget stuff.
Where can we cut the budget?
Let's see,
The % of the budget going to the Military is 54% (That includes our present military, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, our past military including Vets and the interest on debt related to the military,) (The government leaves a lot of that out of the military buget- present wars for example are not included in the Military budget! Figure that out! They also don't include debt on military expendature - even though it is obvious that if it wern't for military spending we would have no debt! There are a few other military expenditures that are pushed off into other areas to make it look as though we spend more on Human Resources etc and less on the military.)
Human Resources, 30% (That includes Soc Sec, Medicare, Medicaid, Education etc.),
Everything else 16% (That includes the Government, Justice, IRS, EPA, NASA, Agriculture, Science, Interest on Debt other than military, and hundreds or thousands of other departments.)
Where can we cut? Well apparently not the Military or Human Resources, which only leaves Everything Else!
So lets start cutting!
EPA, - they only try to keep our air and water and food and land clean, Big Business will police themselves, so they are not needed, cut that.
NASA, they only give us hope for the future, exploration - what America was built on, only a few thousand inventions that have changed our lives have come from them. Not needed - cut them.
Science, bad word nowadays, what use is Science? What did it ever do for us? Cut that.
Teachers, Firemen, Police. Roads, Bridges, All rubbish. Cut them.
In fact lets cut everything except the Military and Human Resources budgets.
If we cut half of the entire Everything Else area we would save 8% of our budget! A figure that would barely be noticed by the Military! We spend more than the next 15 countrie's military budgets combined - and most of them are our Allies!
Can you begin to imagine what we could do in this country if we cut our Military budget even just in half? That would Triple our Everything Else budget! We would be able rebuild our infrastructure - roads, bridges, schools etc. We would be able to go to the Moon and explore the Planets, we would be able to have affordable Health Care for all our citizens. We might even be able to have some effective regulations to stop Big Business, Big Banks, and Wall Street from swindling us all!
Does this sound like a Dream? Can you even begin to imagine the hold that Big Business, Banks and Wall Street has over our politicians? No you cannot. To say they have our Pile of Shitens - sorry Politicians, in their back pockets is the understatement of the Century! We have no one on our side at all, the Politicians, Business, Banks and Wall Street look on us as their own personal Piggy Banks. Did you know that the 400 wealthiest Americans for example have more wealth than 50% of all Americans? Let me repeat that in a different way. 400 American Individuals have more wealth than 155 MILLION Americans COMBINED!!!
Now THAT is what I call an Income Gap! And we not only stand it, we even voted that these evil people should keep the 4% tax cut that George Bush gave them 10 years ago. (Even George knew we couldn't afford to give it to them forever, so he limited it to 10 years). Did you know that the average American pays 30% of his income in taxes, while the richest 1% of Americans pay only 16% in taxes?
But that is a Blog for another day. Let me know if you would like me to start on that one. I'd love to do one on Big Business, Banks and Wall Street and tell you how I think they have sucked us dry - with the help of our wonderful (not) politicians.
Let's see,
The % of the budget going to the Military is 54% (That includes our present military, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, our past military including Vets and the interest on debt related to the military,) (The government leaves a lot of that out of the military buget- present wars for example are not included in the Military budget! Figure that out! They also don't include debt on military expendature - even though it is obvious that if it wern't for military spending we would have no debt! There are a few other military expenditures that are pushed off into other areas to make it look as though we spend more on Human Resources etc and less on the military.)
Human Resources, 30% (That includes Soc Sec, Medicare, Medicaid, Education etc.),
Everything else 16% (That includes the Government, Justice, IRS, EPA, NASA, Agriculture, Science, Interest on Debt other than military, and hundreds or thousands of other departments.)
Where can we cut? Well apparently not the Military or Human Resources, which only leaves Everything Else!
So lets start cutting!
EPA, - they only try to keep our air and water and food and land clean, Big Business will police themselves, so they are not needed, cut that.
NASA, they only give us hope for the future, exploration - what America was built on, only a few thousand inventions that have changed our lives have come from them. Not needed - cut them.
Science, bad word nowadays, what use is Science? What did it ever do for us? Cut that.
Teachers, Firemen, Police. Roads, Bridges, All rubbish. Cut them.
In fact lets cut everything except the Military and Human Resources budgets.
If we cut half of the entire Everything Else area we would save 8% of our budget! A figure that would barely be noticed by the Military! We spend more than the next 15 countrie's military budgets combined - and most of them are our Allies!
Can you begin to imagine what we could do in this country if we cut our Military budget even just in half? That would Triple our Everything Else budget! We would be able rebuild our infrastructure - roads, bridges, schools etc. We would be able to go to the Moon and explore the Planets, we would be able to have affordable Health Care for all our citizens. We might even be able to have some effective regulations to stop Big Business, Big Banks, and Wall Street from swindling us all!
Does this sound like a Dream? Can you even begin to imagine the hold that Big Business, Banks and Wall Street has over our politicians? No you cannot. To say they have our Pile of Shitens - sorry Politicians, in their back pockets is the understatement of the Century! We have no one on our side at all, the Politicians, Business, Banks and Wall Street look on us as their own personal Piggy Banks. Did you know that the 400 wealthiest Americans for example have more wealth than 50% of all Americans? Let me repeat that in a different way. 400 American Individuals have more wealth than 155 MILLION Americans COMBINED!!!
Now THAT is what I call an Income Gap! And we not only stand it, we even voted that these evil people should keep the 4% tax cut that George Bush gave them 10 years ago. (Even George knew we couldn't afford to give it to them forever, so he limited it to 10 years). Did you know that the average American pays 30% of his income in taxes, while the richest 1% of Americans pay only 16% in taxes?
But that is a Blog for another day. Let me know if you would like me to start on that one. I'd love to do one on Big Business, Banks and Wall Street and tell you how I think they have sucked us dry - with the help of our wonderful (not) politicians.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Lake Update.
I just don't know how anyone can bear to live anywhere else except on The Lake - I know that I can't!
I am looking out at yet another perfect sunset - how boring is that? Well the answer is of course, "Not at all boring." I can never, ever get tired of it.
There is the beautiful 'Silver Highway' that the sun has painted right across The Lake, and all over The Lake, the entire Lake, are millions and millions of diamonds, every single one flashing in the sunlight brighter even than that 5 carat that you bought your loved one.
Darting about are little tiny 'Sea Gulls', well they look like little Sea Gulls, they are white and shaped like Sea Gulls, and they dive into the water like Sea Gulls. I must find out just what they are - one day. I just don't seem to have time to find out things like that, I'd rather be watching the little Sea Gulls. And the big Sea Gulls, and the Crows and the Ducks, and of course the Canada Geese.
There are 10 Canada Geese out there right now 'mowing' my lawn for me. And fertilizing it too, all at the same time. How efficient is that?
Out of the 10 Geese, 3 of them have leg 'problems'. Two limp, and the third one brings one of his legs way up in the air when he/she walks, planting it firmly on the ground about three paces in front of him. He is doing what Julia calls "The Goose step!", and she is right, it looks just like Adolph Hitler's storm troopers as they goose stepped across the parade ground, and is almost as funny as they look when we watch them now on film. (They sure did not look funny in the 1930's and 40's, terrifying would be more like it.) But our goose stepping Canada Goose does not look terrifying at all. He looks funny and a little sad looking. We don't know what happened to cause the injury. Julia thinks maybe a particularly bad landing on the ice, now there is a funny sight. If you have never seen Geese landing on a frozen Lake, get ready to break something, it is funny.
Well everything is very still now, the sky is pink, and all is still. The temperatures reached into the 60's today. Yesterday or was it the day before it was 70. We have had tremendous winds over the last few days, but it could not be more calm now.
Maybe a good time to say goodnight and go get a rum punch.
I am looking out at yet another perfect sunset - how boring is that? Well the answer is of course, "Not at all boring." I can never, ever get tired of it.
There is the beautiful 'Silver Highway' that the sun has painted right across The Lake, and all over The Lake, the entire Lake, are millions and millions of diamonds, every single one flashing in the sunlight brighter even than that 5 carat that you bought your loved one.
Darting about are little tiny 'Sea Gulls', well they look like little Sea Gulls, they are white and shaped like Sea Gulls, and they dive into the water like Sea Gulls. I must find out just what they are - one day. I just don't seem to have time to find out things like that, I'd rather be watching the little Sea Gulls. And the big Sea Gulls, and the Crows and the Ducks, and of course the Canada Geese.
There are 10 Canada Geese out there right now 'mowing' my lawn for me. And fertilizing it too, all at the same time. How efficient is that?
Out of the 10 Geese, 3 of them have leg 'problems'. Two limp, and the third one brings one of his legs way up in the air when he/she walks, planting it firmly on the ground about three paces in front of him. He is doing what Julia calls "The Goose step!", and she is right, it looks just like Adolph Hitler's storm troopers as they goose stepped across the parade ground, and is almost as funny as they look when we watch them now on film. (They sure did not look funny in the 1930's and 40's, terrifying would be more like it.) But our goose stepping Canada Goose does not look terrifying at all. He looks funny and a little sad looking. We don't know what happened to cause the injury. Julia thinks maybe a particularly bad landing on the ice, now there is a funny sight. If you have never seen Geese landing on a frozen Lake, get ready to break something, it is funny.
Well everything is very still now, the sky is pink, and all is still. The temperatures reached into the 60's today. Yesterday or was it the day before it was 70. We have had tremendous winds over the last few days, but it could not be more calm now.
Maybe a good time to say goodnight and go get a rum punch.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Budget Deficit.
I have been giving this budget deficit some serious thought. It has occurred to me that every single penny of every single thing we do and make and produce is labor. There is not one thing that we do or make or own that the cost of it is not comprised entirely of labor.
If you think that I am wrong in this idea please tell me.
A few examples. A suit. Someone produces the seeds to grow the cotton, he is paid, someone else plants the seeds and tends the plants, he/she is paid. The cotton is picked, spun, woven into cloth, cut by a tailor, driven to a store, sold by a sales person. The buttons are made from plastic that is produced by people who drill wells and pump oil which is then made into plastic for the buttons. The oil drills are made by men in factories from iron ore that is dug from the ground and smelted to make steel for the machines. Every cent of the value in all of that comes from work or our labor. And on and on. It is the same for everything, cars, food, you name it. 100% of every single thing or service is labor, one way or another.
So, if we have a deficit, the answer is really, really simple - we are paying too much for labor. If everyone were paid, say 10% less than we are, there would be no deficit. The budget would balance!
However, I don't think this is the way to go. The average American worker earns $40,000 a year and, on the average, he/she works hard for it. On the other hand there are people making, not earning, tens of millions of dollars a year. There is no way possible that someone can work hard enough to earn, or add that much value, to anything. I think that is where we need to start. The CEO of Wells Fargo Bank made $53 Million Dollars last year, a jumped up bank manager! Tiger Woods makes $100 million a year, playing golf! Wall street thieves pay themselves billions in bonuses for "Doing a good job"! (That would be robbing the country and the world blind - and then taking more of our money to 'bail themselves out'. Then the next year paying themselves even more in bonuses than they did the year the country went broke!) These are the people that are soaking us. The top 1% of Americans take home 26% of all the money earned in the US! In 1970 the top 1% took home 8% of all the money earned in the US - do you see a trend here?.
It seems to me this is where the problem lies. The average worker is doing his part, he works, he adds value. Bankers, Wall Street types, CEO's of huge business, executive Officers etc. etc are the problem. Their Greed is beyond all bounds - I ask you, $53 Million dollars a year for a bank manager! How to stop it I don't know, but one way is to tax them.
First they should be paying Social Security Taxes on ALL of their "earnings". I know they won't be needing any Soc. Sec., but I have to pay it on ALL of my earnings, why shouldn't they?
Once someone reaches a certain level of income, taxes need to go way way up. If the average American earns $40,000 what is a good salary for a CEO? how about ten times the pay of his average worker? Hey, $400,000 - the same as the President of the USA! A much harder more stressful job than counting money and then deciding how much of it to take! (In 1970 CEO's on average, were paid 50 times more than their average worker was paid. Yes I agree, way too much. But, in 2010 CEO's were paid, on average, 500 times what their average worker was paid!!! And the CEO of Wells Fargo was paid 1,300 times what the average worker earns!!! Now if his salary was a more reasonable 10 times the average pay, or $400,000, the same as the President of the USA, that would leave enough money, just from his pay cut, to pay an additional 1290 people!! From one mans pay, from one company, and each company has dozens to hundreds of these overpaid sharks. It would not take long to have full employment in the US and a balanced budget. I'm not even suggesting getting rid of them, just that they should be paid a reasonable amount. And $53 million dollars is NOT reasonable, or in any way justified for what he does.
OK, it ain' gonna happen, they are going to keep on stealing our money, keep on telling us they need more and more fees etc, asking for bailouts from the Govt and then when they get it give themselves even bigger bonuses!!
So what to do? Tax them. They are stealing from us, you and me and America as a whole, so just take it right back. Once you get to half a million a year you should start paying at least 90% of any additional "Earnings" in tax. At a million jump it up to 95% and at 2 million 98 or 99%. Hey even at those rates the Wells Fargo CEO would take home around $1.6 million! And Tiger Woods would get around $2.6 million! Not too shabby for playing golf!! And America would be back in the black. Social Security and Medicare for our elderly would be safe. Good for everyone.
What did I hear, the rich won't be able to spend that money to make jobs and get us on the road to recovery - have you noticed them spending us out of this recession? No, I didn't think so. In fact the more money they steal from us the worse the recession gets. Let us, the workers spend it. Same effect. In fact even better, we'll spend it on TV's, food, movies, restaurants, clothes, cars, the stuff workers make. Not on $100 million dollar Van Gogh paintings for the board room wall, big diamonds from Africa for the little lady, First Class air seats so they can go all over the world and spend money in French restaurants and for houses in London, Sydney, Paris, Rome and a private Island in the Caribbean or the South Seas.
No, they are living the good life, way, way better than any of us could ever hope for, and they are doing it at our expense, with our money, money that we made with our hard work and they took from us.
I don't even have a problem with people getting rich, working hard, even buying lottery tickets, we all hope to get rich, but there is a limit, and you have reached that limit and gone way beyond it when you take $53 million or $100 million or more! There are people making 1 billion dollars a year! And probably paying less tax than you do! Certainly paying less tax percentage wise than you do. The top 1% of American "Earners" pay 16% of their "Earnings" in tax! Way less than you and I do!! AND, we just voted for them to continue to get the 4% tax break that George Bush gave them 10 years ago! How about them apples. They MUST be laughing at us for that. Even George Bush knew we couldn't afford for it to go on forever, that's why he only made it for 10 years.
That 4% extra tax alone that they would be paying now would have taken care of Medicare for at least 75 years.
Well I gotta go. Straighten me out.
If you think that I am wrong in this idea please tell me.
A few examples. A suit. Someone produces the seeds to grow the cotton, he is paid, someone else plants the seeds and tends the plants, he/she is paid. The cotton is picked, spun, woven into cloth, cut by a tailor, driven to a store, sold by a sales person. The buttons are made from plastic that is produced by people who drill wells and pump oil which is then made into plastic for the buttons. The oil drills are made by men in factories from iron ore that is dug from the ground and smelted to make steel for the machines. Every cent of the value in all of that comes from work or our labor. And on and on. It is the same for everything, cars, food, you name it. 100% of every single thing or service is labor, one way or another.
So, if we have a deficit, the answer is really, really simple - we are paying too much for labor. If everyone were paid, say 10% less than we are, there would be no deficit. The budget would balance!
However, I don't think this is the way to go. The average American worker earns $40,000 a year and, on the average, he/she works hard for it. On the other hand there are people making, not earning, tens of millions of dollars a year. There is no way possible that someone can work hard enough to earn, or add that much value, to anything. I think that is where we need to start. The CEO of Wells Fargo Bank made $53 Million Dollars last year, a jumped up bank manager! Tiger Woods makes $100 million a year, playing golf! Wall street thieves pay themselves billions in bonuses for "Doing a good job"! (That would be robbing the country and the world blind - and then taking more of our money to 'bail themselves out'. Then the next year paying themselves even more in bonuses than they did the year the country went broke!) These are the people that are soaking us. The top 1% of Americans take home 26% of all the money earned in the US! In 1970 the top 1% took home 8% of all the money earned in the US - do you see a trend here?.
It seems to me this is where the problem lies. The average worker is doing his part, he works, he adds value. Bankers, Wall Street types, CEO's of huge business, executive Officers etc. etc are the problem. Their Greed is beyond all bounds - I ask you, $53 Million dollars a year for a bank manager! How to stop it I don't know, but one way is to tax them.
First they should be paying Social Security Taxes on ALL of their "earnings". I know they won't be needing any Soc. Sec., but I have to pay it on ALL of my earnings, why shouldn't they?
Once someone reaches a certain level of income, taxes need to go way way up. If the average American earns $40,000 what is a good salary for a CEO? how about ten times the pay of his average worker? Hey, $400,000 - the same as the President of the USA! A much harder more stressful job than counting money and then deciding how much of it to take! (In 1970 CEO's on average, were paid 50 times more than their average worker was paid. Yes I agree, way too much. But, in 2010 CEO's were paid, on average, 500 times what their average worker was paid!!! And the CEO of Wells Fargo was paid 1,300 times what the average worker earns!!! Now if his salary was a more reasonable 10 times the average pay, or $400,000, the same as the President of the USA, that would leave enough money, just from his pay cut, to pay an additional 1290 people!! From one mans pay, from one company, and each company has dozens to hundreds of these overpaid sharks. It would not take long to have full employment in the US and a balanced budget. I'm not even suggesting getting rid of them, just that they should be paid a reasonable amount. And $53 million dollars is NOT reasonable, or in any way justified for what he does.
OK, it ain' gonna happen, they are going to keep on stealing our money, keep on telling us they need more and more fees etc, asking for bailouts from the Govt and then when they get it give themselves even bigger bonuses!!
So what to do? Tax them. They are stealing from us, you and me and America as a whole, so just take it right back. Once you get to half a million a year you should start paying at least 90% of any additional "Earnings" in tax. At a million jump it up to 95% and at 2 million 98 or 99%. Hey even at those rates the Wells Fargo CEO would take home around $1.6 million! And Tiger Woods would get around $2.6 million! Not too shabby for playing golf!! And America would be back in the black. Social Security and Medicare for our elderly would be safe. Good for everyone.
What did I hear, the rich won't be able to spend that money to make jobs and get us on the road to recovery - have you noticed them spending us out of this recession? No, I didn't think so. In fact the more money they steal from us the worse the recession gets. Let us, the workers spend it. Same effect. In fact even better, we'll spend it on TV's, food, movies, restaurants, clothes, cars, the stuff workers make. Not on $100 million dollar Van Gogh paintings for the board room wall, big diamonds from Africa for the little lady, First Class air seats so they can go all over the world and spend money in French restaurants and for houses in London, Sydney, Paris, Rome and a private Island in the Caribbean or the South Seas.
No, they are living the good life, way, way better than any of us could ever hope for, and they are doing it at our expense, with our money, money that we made with our hard work and they took from us.
I don't even have a problem with people getting rich, working hard, even buying lottery tickets, we all hope to get rich, but there is a limit, and you have reached that limit and gone way beyond it when you take $53 million or $100 million or more! There are people making 1 billion dollars a year! And probably paying less tax than you do! Certainly paying less tax percentage wise than you do. The top 1% of American "Earners" pay 16% of their "Earnings" in tax! Way less than you and I do!! AND, we just voted for them to continue to get the 4% tax break that George Bush gave them 10 years ago! How about them apples. They MUST be laughing at us for that. Even George Bush knew we couldn't afford for it to go on forever, that's why he only made it for 10 years.
That 4% extra tax alone that they would be paying now would have taken care of Medicare for at least 75 years.
Well I gotta go. Straighten me out.
Sunset over The lake.
I wish you could all see the Sunset over The Lake this evening. It is even more brilliant than the one we had yesterday. There is a silver band around the clouds, kind of like the waves around a coral island. Wait, did I say silver? No it's gold. Did I say Gold? Make that silver AND gold. Hang on, what is happening now, sorry there are just too many colors there to describe!
I guess that is why we called it Sunset Cottege.
I am going to sit and enjoy it for a while.
I guess that is why we called it Sunset Cottege.
I am going to sit and enjoy it for a while.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Am I a Republican?
I was just looking over my financial mess and suddenly realized that I must indeed be a Republican!
The Republicans want to defeat the Obama health care bill, which according to all reports will increase the deficit by some $145 Billion. They just forced through the extension of the Bush tax cuts which adds a cool $850 Billion to the deficit.
This is in line with cutting the deficit?
Anyway, it seems that the country, that would be the good old USA, collects almost enough in Taxes to pay for a little more than 1/2 of it's expenses. The other 40% or so it borrows. I'm not sure how long that can go on. And I'm not sure how adding to the deficit helps it either.
But that ladies and gentlemen is how it has finally come home to me why I must be a Republican, because that is how I have been running my finances. I spend way more than I earn, (No one else does that do they?) and I borrow to make up the difference. When I see something that I can't afford, I buy it!
But please don't call me a Conservative Republican, I would never go THAT far! I'd try to rein in my spending and increase my income before I would go there.
You increase income by increasing taxes. I know "Cutting taxes" has a great sound to it, and is GUARANTEED to get you votes. But why do we insist on cutting taxes to people who have so much money that it is absolutely disgusting.
Had the Bush tax cuts been allowed to expire the 4% additional tax that the richest 2% of Americans would have paid would have fixed Medicare for 75 years! Just 4% additional tax. The 1% of richest Americans pay just 16% of their income in taxes - far less than you and I pay. And we INSIST that they should pay even less! Why? Is it because we think that we will one day be in that position?
Even Warren Buffet, the second richest American says the tax system in the US is ridiculous, he pays less tax than his secretary pays, is what he said in an interview!
CEO"S of large companies in 1970 made 50 times what their average employee made. Yes I agree way too much. But in 2010 they made 500 times as much as their average employee! If they continued to make 50 times as much that would free up enough money for that company to employ/pay an additional 450 employees! And he, the CEO, would still be making way more than he should. (And that is just the CEO, there are dozens of other 'top management' people making similar ridiculous salaries.)
The 'income gap' in this country is way out of line. It is bigger now than it has ever been, either in this country or in any other country, ever. The top 1% of Americans "earn" 26% of the total income of the USA! (In 1970 the top 1% made 8% of the total income of the USA) Where will this trend end up?
These Mega Rich completely control the money in the US and probably in much of the rest of the world. Certainly they control Congress, the Senate, Banks, Wall Street - you name it. And we want them to have even more - so we vote for them to pay even less taxes! See, they even control us!!!!
The Republicans want to defeat the Obama health care bill, which according to all reports will increase the deficit by some $145 Billion. They just forced through the extension of the Bush tax cuts which adds a cool $850 Billion to the deficit.
This is in line with cutting the deficit?
Anyway, it seems that the country, that would be the good old USA, collects almost enough in Taxes to pay for a little more than 1/2 of it's expenses. The other 40% or so it borrows. I'm not sure how long that can go on. And I'm not sure how adding to the deficit helps it either.
But that ladies and gentlemen is how it has finally come home to me why I must be a Republican, because that is how I have been running my finances. I spend way more than I earn, (No one else does that do they?) and I borrow to make up the difference. When I see something that I can't afford, I buy it!
But please don't call me a Conservative Republican, I would never go THAT far! I'd try to rein in my spending and increase my income before I would go there.
You increase income by increasing taxes. I know "Cutting taxes" has a great sound to it, and is GUARANTEED to get you votes. But why do we insist on cutting taxes to people who have so much money that it is absolutely disgusting.
Had the Bush tax cuts been allowed to expire the 4% additional tax that the richest 2% of Americans would have paid would have fixed Medicare for 75 years! Just 4% additional tax. The 1% of richest Americans pay just 16% of their income in taxes - far less than you and I pay. And we INSIST that they should pay even less! Why? Is it because we think that we will one day be in that position?
Even Warren Buffet, the second richest American says the tax system in the US is ridiculous, he pays less tax than his secretary pays, is what he said in an interview!
CEO"S of large companies in 1970 made 50 times what their average employee made. Yes I agree way too much. But in 2010 they made 500 times as much as their average employee! If they continued to make 50 times as much that would free up enough money for that company to employ/pay an additional 450 employees! And he, the CEO, would still be making way more than he should. (And that is just the CEO, there are dozens of other 'top management' people making similar ridiculous salaries.)
The 'income gap' in this country is way out of line. It is bigger now than it has ever been, either in this country or in any other country, ever. The top 1% of Americans "earn" 26% of the total income of the USA! (In 1970 the top 1% made 8% of the total income of the USA) Where will this trend end up?
These Mega Rich completely control the money in the US and probably in much of the rest of the world. Certainly they control Congress, the Senate, Banks, Wall Street - you name it. And we want them to have even more - so we vote for them to pay even less taxes! See, they even control us!!!!
Weather.
Have we had weather? Just like everywhere this year weather is in the news and in our conversations and in our bones. Especially my bones and the bones of my beloved. (that would be my wife Julia)
I don't need to go into the temperature fluctuations that are invading our conversations. If it weren't for Egypt we probably wouldn't be discussing anything but the weather. Cold. Then two days ago it was in the 50's and sunny!!! Today I wake up and it is 40 degrees already - at 6.30 am - and heading for the upper 40's. But tonight we are expecting it to drop to 15!
I heard that Houston, yes Houston had a temperature of 19 a few days ago!
Outside right now i am looking at a Bird Tree. A Bird Tree I say? Well what else can I call it, at Christmas we had a tree covered in all kinds of decorations, now I am looking at a tree with literally HUNDREDS of birds in/on it. All black birds, I don't even know how they are managing to hang on, the wind must be blowing 40 miles an hour. The water is whipping up into waves. Wait, water? Yes I can see water, in fact I'd say 10% to 20% of The Lake is ice free!
I was away last weekend, but Julia was here and she reported to me that The Lake had done a considerable amount of thawing - remember that 50 degree plus day - and the birds were having a wonderful time. The resident Canada Geese, a flock of around 40, were busy diving, splashing, chasing and generally having fun feeding and washing, something they have not been able to do for weeks because The Lake has been frozen solid.
She also reported that the Geese were joined by a large number of Sea Gulls that outnumbered the Geese by 3 or 4 to 1. In fact she said she could not remember when she had ever seen so many Sea Gulls on The Lake.
The Sun is now well and truly UP on my beloved Lake. I can see groups of Sea Gulls scattered about on the surface of the ice, the Canada Geese are nowhere to be seen right now, but I am sure they will put in an appearance soon. A few of the stronger Gulls are making valiant attempts to fly, the wind buffeting them mercilessly. The smarter ones are hunkering down. Although how smart is it to sit on a frozen lake with a 40 mph wind?
Looking in the other direction at The Bay I can see large whitecaps breaking everywhere, which tells me why the Gulls are here on The Lake ! The Lake looks to be a lot more welcoming than the The Bay.
Well, I'd better get Julia's tea going and stoke up the fire, even though it is "warm", and the cats are anxious to be fed too. No peace for the wicked. Have fun you all.
I don't need to go into the temperature fluctuations that are invading our conversations. If it weren't for Egypt we probably wouldn't be discussing anything but the weather. Cold. Then two days ago it was in the 50's and sunny!!! Today I wake up and it is 40 degrees already - at 6.30 am - and heading for the upper 40's. But tonight we are expecting it to drop to 15!
I heard that Houston, yes Houston had a temperature of 19 a few days ago!
Outside right now i am looking at a Bird Tree. A Bird Tree I say? Well what else can I call it, at Christmas we had a tree covered in all kinds of decorations, now I am looking at a tree with literally HUNDREDS of birds in/on it. All black birds, I don't even know how they are managing to hang on, the wind must be blowing 40 miles an hour. The water is whipping up into waves. Wait, water? Yes I can see water, in fact I'd say 10% to 20% of The Lake is ice free!
I was away last weekend, but Julia was here and she reported to me that The Lake had done a considerable amount of thawing - remember that 50 degree plus day - and the birds were having a wonderful time. The resident Canada Geese, a flock of around 40, were busy diving, splashing, chasing and generally having fun feeding and washing, something they have not been able to do for weeks because The Lake has been frozen solid.
She also reported that the Geese were joined by a large number of Sea Gulls that outnumbered the Geese by 3 or 4 to 1. In fact she said she could not remember when she had ever seen so many Sea Gulls on The Lake.
The Sun is now well and truly UP on my beloved Lake. I can see groups of Sea Gulls scattered about on the surface of the ice, the Canada Geese are nowhere to be seen right now, but I am sure they will put in an appearance soon. A few of the stronger Gulls are making valiant attempts to fly, the wind buffeting them mercilessly. The smarter ones are hunkering down. Although how smart is it to sit on a frozen lake with a 40 mph wind?
Looking in the other direction at The Bay I can see large whitecaps breaking everywhere, which tells me why the Gulls are here on The Lake ! The Lake looks to be a lot more welcoming than the The Bay.
Well, I'd better get Julia's tea going and stoke up the fire, even though it is "warm", and the cats are anxious to be fed too. No peace for the wicked. Have fun you all.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Politics.
It is the same old, same old. Is it just me or do the Republicans spend an inordinate amount of time and energy just trying to derail Obama's efforts to put us back in the black? I could say, hey he is still trying to correct the damage done by George Bush, but I won't.
It does not seem to matter what Obama or the Democrats want to do, the only response from "The other side", is to try to wreck whatever he does. He could propose sending all mother-in-laws to darkest Africa and I bet they would even try to sabotage that!
I mean, here we have the only civilized country in the world that does not have universal health care for all it's citizens and when he tries to correct, or at least improve it, you would think he had suggested Death Panels or something!
The richest country in the world has one of the worst health care systems in the world. (The cost of health care in the US is DOUBLE what it costs anywhere else and yet our life span is shorter! Does that sound like "We have the best Health Care in the world", as a friend said to me recently?
Our Health Care Insurance INDUSTRY spends more than one million dollars a DAY lobbying Congress to do their bidding. (Hey what would you do if someone was giving you a million dollars a DAY in bribes?) That's $1.7 Billion dollars just since 2006. The Executives pay themselves huge bonuses (they must think they are related to the Bankers!) If you get sick, they drop you. Yes, it will come back - one million dollars a DAY will ensure that. Drugs here also cost DOUBLE what they cost elsewhere - one reason for that, apart from old fashioned greed, is that the drug companies are allowed to advertise their drugs (Nowhere else allows that) and the cost of the advertising doubles what you pay for them!!
Want more? I'll repeat, in case you missed, health care here costs DOUBLE what it costs in Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, France the UK, Canada and on and on, and they live longer than us! Don't believe what you hear from the Insurance Companies and Politicians (They are being bribed at the rate of a million dollars a DAY, remember) about poor care in other countries, it is just not true. Yes, you may have to wait for optional surgery, but if it is vital it is done right away. I know about it, I lived in the UK, my parents, other relatives and friends live there and they are all happy with their care. And don't forget they pay HALF of what we pay here!
I get an MRI of my brain tumor every year, it costs $1,500.00 The same MRI in Japan costs $93.00. We are being robbed big time by our Insurance Companies, and our testing companies. Did you see the story about the companies that do blood tests etc? One of them comes to the Dr's office and picks up urine samples, takes them to the lab for tests. They then send the results to the Doctor for the tests he ordered. Fine, BUT they then send in bills to the insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid for other tests that weren't ordered. Billions of dollars worth of tests. Guess who pays for these tests? Yep, us, in higher premiums. And there are hundreds of labs and offices out there that do that and worse. Some bill insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid for drugs, wheelchairs, false arms and legs, slings, bandages etc etc. They just bill for them, they don't supply them, no one does, they just charge for them. Hundreds of companies are out there doing just that, ripping us off for Billions of dollars a year.
Well time to go, and calm down by watching the wild life!
It does not seem to matter what Obama or the Democrats want to do, the only response from "The other side", is to try to wreck whatever he does. He could propose sending all mother-in-laws to darkest Africa and I bet they would even try to sabotage that!
I mean, here we have the only civilized country in the world that does not have universal health care for all it's citizens and when he tries to correct, or at least improve it, you would think he had suggested Death Panels or something!
The richest country in the world has one of the worst health care systems in the world. (The cost of health care in the US is DOUBLE what it costs anywhere else and yet our life span is shorter! Does that sound like "We have the best Health Care in the world", as a friend said to me recently?
Our Health Care Insurance INDUSTRY spends more than one million dollars a DAY lobbying Congress to do their bidding. (Hey what would you do if someone was giving you a million dollars a DAY in bribes?) That's $1.7 Billion dollars just since 2006. The Executives pay themselves huge bonuses (they must think they are related to the Bankers!) If you get sick, they drop you. Yes, it will come back - one million dollars a DAY will ensure that. Drugs here also cost DOUBLE what they cost elsewhere - one reason for that, apart from old fashioned greed, is that the drug companies are allowed to advertise their drugs (Nowhere else allows that) and the cost of the advertising doubles what you pay for them!!
Want more? I'll repeat, in case you missed, health care here costs DOUBLE what it costs in Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, France the UK, Canada and on and on, and they live longer than us! Don't believe what you hear from the Insurance Companies and Politicians (They are being bribed at the rate of a million dollars a DAY, remember) about poor care in other countries, it is just not true. Yes, you may have to wait for optional surgery, but if it is vital it is done right away. I know about it, I lived in the UK, my parents, other relatives and friends live there and they are all happy with their care. And don't forget they pay HALF of what we pay here!
I get an MRI of my brain tumor every year, it costs $1,500.00 The same MRI in Japan costs $93.00. We are being robbed big time by our Insurance Companies, and our testing companies. Did you see the story about the companies that do blood tests etc? One of them comes to the Dr's office and picks up urine samples, takes them to the lab for tests. They then send the results to the Doctor for the tests he ordered. Fine, BUT they then send in bills to the insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid for other tests that weren't ordered. Billions of dollars worth of tests. Guess who pays for these tests? Yep, us, in higher premiums. And there are hundreds of labs and offices out there that do that and worse. Some bill insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid for drugs, wheelchairs, false arms and legs, slings, bandages etc etc. They just bill for them, they don't supply them, no one does, they just charge for them. Hundreds of companies are out there doing just that, ripping us off for Billions of dollars a year.
Well time to go, and calm down by watching the wild life!
Winter, winter, winter.
Will it never end? We here in Maryland have been lucky this year, we seem to have escaped almost all of the snow "events" that the rest of the country has suffered through. But even so it has been cold and miserable. We have had the same number of storms but instead of getting 12", 24" and 30" of snow, we get 1" or less! Although we did get a "big" one last week when about 5" landed on us. But who can complain about that when New York got another 19"! With Philadelphia and Boston collecting similar amounts to add to their records.
The Lake is beautiful though, with lots of birds to watch. There were 4 Great Blue Herons on The Lake a few days ago, standing around in a group with some big Gulls and a couple of Turkey Vultures. We could not see what the interest was, but Julia thought there might be something dead there.
The Canada Geese continue to come back every day. I Have been feeding the birds, and there are a lot of Blue Jays, Crows, Grackles, Cardinals and assorted smaller birds at the feeders as well as the squirrels. The Canada Geese often come strutting in and clean up the spilled seed, so I got a bag of cracked corn and have been putting that out for the geese. I was surprised to see that the birds eat the corn too.
The promised ice "storm" and freezing rain did not arrive last night. But the danger is not yet over, the weather forecasters are still calling for a mix of freezing rain, ice, snow and rain over the next two days.
We will see.
The Lake is beautiful though, with lots of birds to watch. There were 4 Great Blue Herons on The Lake a few days ago, standing around in a group with some big Gulls and a couple of Turkey Vultures. We could not see what the interest was, but Julia thought there might be something dead there.
The Canada Geese continue to come back every day. I Have been feeding the birds, and there are a lot of Blue Jays, Crows, Grackles, Cardinals and assorted smaller birds at the feeders as well as the squirrels. The Canada Geese often come strutting in and clean up the spilled seed, so I got a bag of cracked corn and have been putting that out for the geese. I was surprised to see that the birds eat the corn too.
The promised ice "storm" and freezing rain did not arrive last night. But the danger is not yet over, the weather forecasters are still calling for a mix of freezing rain, ice, snow and rain over the next two days.
We will see.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Another comment on health care.
As much as Congress hates the new health care law why don't they repeal their own health care insurance? Let them pay for their own insurance, most of them can well afford it. (After all the health insurance companies spend more than 1 million dollars a DAY lobbying congress. For that you can read bribing Congress. That's 1.7 BILLION dollars bribing Congress just since 2006.) Then after just 5 years "Serving" us they get free health insurance for life!! Why should we pay for their health insurance? We have to pay for our own health insurance, why shouldn't they pay for their own?
They don't even pay for their staff's health insurance! We do. Why? Any other business pays, and if there is someone with an illness on staff, they pay more.
Our Congressmen pay nothing, either for their insurance or that of their employees.
They think that they are all above us and deserving of special treatment, special treatment for them, that we should pay for.
They don't even pay for their staff's health insurance! We do. Why? Any other business pays, and if there is someone with an illness on staff, they pay more.
Our Congressmen pay nothing, either for their insurance or that of their employees.
They think that they are all above us and deserving of special treatment, special treatment for them, that we should pay for.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Health Care.
Here is another reason why Americans pay twice as much for their medical care as other rich countries. It does of course involve money - money from taxpayers, employers and consumers.
Incidentally, although we pay twice as much as all the other rich civilized countries in the world, we do NOT get better care - as most people believe. We believe this because we are told it repeatedly, over and over, and again and again, by the medical profession, insurance companies and the politicians, who are paid off by them. If you are told something, anything, often enough you will believe it. The average American has a shorter lifespan than the citizens of the other rich nations - in spite of paying twice as much for health care.
The rip offs, scams, thefts, etc that I refer to I was reading about in our local newspaper the Baltimore Sun. They described about a dozen ways that it is done, each one described in detail.
I won't bore you with them all, but one involves paybacks to Doctors. The testing company involved gave cash paybacks to Doctors to send business to them - many, if not most, tests sent out were not necessary or needed. Doctors were paid as much as $200 cash for some tests (For each test!) The same company would send their representatives to Doctors offices to pick up urine samples for tests. They would then do the test that the Doctor wanted - plus they would do other tests that were not asked for and bill the Insurance company or Medicare or Medicaid for the extra tests. (To understand this better you should read here "They billed YOU"!) Who else pays for it? That's right, you pay for the kickbacks, the unnecessary tests and all that in the form of your health insurance premium and Medicare premium - YOU pay for the tests. To the tune of HALF of your insurance premium! Remember we pay TWICE as much as all the other rich civilized countries pay. And we live shorter lives. Got that? We pay twice as much, for less care. HALF of your health costs go to pay greedy doctors, testing companies and politicians (For payoffs) Payoffs paid for by US with OUR money. Not paid for by the insurance companies, as many people think - "They have plenty of money, they can afford it." ALL the money that the insurance companies have comes from us. So, when the insurance company pays for an unnecessary test, they just raise the premium we pay. If you are thinking, "Well I don't pay an insurance premium, my company does", or my State or The federal government if you work for the state, wrong again, if your company is paying $300 to $500 a week for your insurance premium (A normal amount for a family with children) when the amount should be $150 to $250 that is $150 to $250 more that they could afford to put in your paycheck every week!
The rip offs of Medicare and Medicaid are unbelievable. Sixty Minutes did an investigation last year and found THOUSANDS of companies that rip off Medicare and Medicaid. All they do is bill Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, you read it right, all those thousands of companies do is bill Medicare and Medicaid. They don't do any tests, supply any drugs, wheelchairs, walkers, splints, bandages, false arms and legs, heart pumps, or ANYTHING. They just BILL the Government (That's us) for those things. They don't supply anything, they just bill for them. No one supplies them, they don't exist, they bill the government for them. And good old Uncle Sam pays, promptly. BILLIONS of dollars a year are wasted (I prefer stolen) in this way. And every single dollar that is stolen comes out of our pockets. Not out of the insurance company, not out of the Federal treasury - out of your pocket. Next time you send in your premium, remember that - half of it goes to thieves of one form or another, and if your company pays your premium your paycheck could be several hundred dollars more every week if you weren't paying those thieves. (When I was working I paid $1,048 a month in health insurance premiums for just Julia and myself. And it wasn't that great an insurance. Now with Medicare, and the Medigap, and the Part D premiums we "only" pay about $600 a month) Don't forget now, HALF of your premium goes to scammers, rip off artists, dishonest doctors and politicians. Maybe more than half, because that would only make our premiums the same as the other rich countries and some of this must happen there.
Doctors get bribed for referrals. Doctors do unnecessary operations. One hospital in Baltimore did thousands of heart operations involving Stents, mostly by one Doctor (Who gave classes on how to sell them!) It was determined that 80% to 90% of the operations that they did were not necessary! (I guess they were necessary to the Doctors who did them, so they could make the payments on their his and hers Mercedes, their sailboats, private jets etc.) - in case you think I am jealous of someone having these things that I don't have (I am) my real objection is my paying for them, out of MY pocket. Hey, if I could pay the health insurance premium that my counterpart in say Japan pays, maybe I could afford a Mercedes - instead of which I am paying for someone else's toys.
Talking of Japan, here's an interesting fact. I get an MRI done every year - to check on the progress of my brain tumor - it costs $1,500.00. The same MRI in Japan costs - are you ready for this $93.00. True.
Of course we also pay exorbitant salaries and "bonuses" to the health insurance company executives. We also pay double for our drugs (as compared to other countries) because half the costs of the drugs go to advertising them. You didn't know that? Oh yes, no other country allows advertising of drugs. Half of the cost of your drug is what the drug companies pay to advertise them! That has another side effect - not only does it increase the cost of the drug, it also makes people ask their doctor for them. "Doctor, can I get that XXXX drug? I saw it on TV/Radio/Magazine/Newspaper." The Doctor then, as often as not, prescribes it, because he doesn't want to lose you as a patient. So, you (we) pay for an unnecessary drug. Plus you are taking an unnecessary drug - could that be helping with our shortened lifespans as compared to Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, France, U.K., Germany etc, etc, etc who pay HALF of what we pay for health care and live longer?
Think about it!
Incidentally, although we pay twice as much as all the other rich civilized countries in the world, we do NOT get better care - as most people believe. We believe this because we are told it repeatedly, over and over, and again and again, by the medical profession, insurance companies and the politicians, who are paid off by them. If you are told something, anything, often enough you will believe it. The average American has a shorter lifespan than the citizens of the other rich nations - in spite of paying twice as much for health care.
The rip offs, scams, thefts, etc that I refer to I was reading about in our local newspaper the Baltimore Sun. They described about a dozen ways that it is done, each one described in detail.
I won't bore you with them all, but one involves paybacks to Doctors. The testing company involved gave cash paybacks to Doctors to send business to them - many, if not most, tests sent out were not necessary or needed. Doctors were paid as much as $200 cash for some tests (For each test!) The same company would send their representatives to Doctors offices to pick up urine samples for tests. They would then do the test that the Doctor wanted - plus they would do other tests that were not asked for and bill the Insurance company or Medicare or Medicaid for the extra tests. (To understand this better you should read here "They billed YOU"!) Who else pays for it? That's right, you pay for the kickbacks, the unnecessary tests and all that in the form of your health insurance premium and Medicare premium - YOU pay for the tests. To the tune of HALF of your insurance premium! Remember we pay TWICE as much as all the other rich civilized countries pay. And we live shorter lives. Got that? We pay twice as much, for less care. HALF of your health costs go to pay greedy doctors, testing companies and politicians (For payoffs) Payoffs paid for by US with OUR money. Not paid for by the insurance companies, as many people think - "They have plenty of money, they can afford it." ALL the money that the insurance companies have comes from us. So, when the insurance company pays for an unnecessary test, they just raise the premium we pay. If you are thinking, "Well I don't pay an insurance premium, my company does", or my State or The federal government if you work for the state, wrong again, if your company is paying $300 to $500 a week for your insurance premium (A normal amount for a family with children) when the amount should be $150 to $250 that is $150 to $250 more that they could afford to put in your paycheck every week!
The rip offs of Medicare and Medicaid are unbelievable. Sixty Minutes did an investigation last year and found THOUSANDS of companies that rip off Medicare and Medicaid. All they do is bill Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, you read it right, all those thousands of companies do is bill Medicare and Medicaid. They don't do any tests, supply any drugs, wheelchairs, walkers, splints, bandages, false arms and legs, heart pumps, or ANYTHING. They just BILL the Government (That's us) for those things. They don't supply anything, they just bill for them. No one supplies them, they don't exist, they bill the government for them. And good old Uncle Sam pays, promptly. BILLIONS of dollars a year are wasted (I prefer stolen) in this way. And every single dollar that is stolen comes out of our pockets. Not out of the insurance company, not out of the Federal treasury - out of your pocket. Next time you send in your premium, remember that - half of it goes to thieves of one form or another, and if your company pays your premium your paycheck could be several hundred dollars more every week if you weren't paying those thieves. (When I was working I paid $1,048 a month in health insurance premiums for just Julia and myself. And it wasn't that great an insurance. Now with Medicare, and the Medigap, and the Part D premiums we "only" pay about $600 a month) Don't forget now, HALF of your premium goes to scammers, rip off artists, dishonest doctors and politicians. Maybe more than half, because that would only make our premiums the same as the other rich countries and some of this must happen there.
Doctors get bribed for referrals. Doctors do unnecessary operations. One hospital in Baltimore did thousands of heart operations involving Stents, mostly by one Doctor (Who gave classes on how to sell them!) It was determined that 80% to 90% of the operations that they did were not necessary! (I guess they were necessary to the Doctors who did them, so they could make the payments on their his and hers Mercedes, their sailboats, private jets etc.) - in case you think I am jealous of someone having these things that I don't have (I am) my real objection is my paying for them, out of MY pocket. Hey, if I could pay the health insurance premium that my counterpart in say Japan pays, maybe I could afford a Mercedes - instead of which I am paying for someone else's toys.
Talking of Japan, here's an interesting fact. I get an MRI done every year - to check on the progress of my brain tumor - it costs $1,500.00. The same MRI in Japan costs - are you ready for this $93.00. True.
Of course we also pay exorbitant salaries and "bonuses" to the health insurance company executives. We also pay double for our drugs (as compared to other countries) because half the costs of the drugs go to advertising them. You didn't know that? Oh yes, no other country allows advertising of drugs. Half of the cost of your drug is what the drug companies pay to advertise them! That has another side effect - not only does it increase the cost of the drug, it also makes people ask their doctor for them. "Doctor, can I get that XXXX drug? I saw it on TV/Radio/Magazine/Newspaper." The Doctor then, as often as not, prescribes it, because he doesn't want to lose you as a patient. So, you (we) pay for an unnecessary drug. Plus you are taking an unnecessary drug - could that be helping with our shortened lifespans as compared to Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, France, U.K., Germany etc, etc, etc who pay HALF of what we pay for health care and live longer?
Think about it!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
85 degrees today!
Yes it really is 85 degrees!
That is because we are in Puerto Rico. In the Sheraton. (If you ever want to got to Puerto Rico, don't bother with The Sheraton here! The Sheraton is one of my favorite hotels - but not in Puerto Rico!)
We head for the ship today, The Celebrity Summit, I hope it is better than the Sheraton! But it HAS to be!
Well new post when we get back. The Internet is too expensive on board. At least it's free here at the hotel.
David.
That is because we are in Puerto Rico. In the Sheraton. (If you ever want to got to Puerto Rico, don't bother with The Sheraton here! The Sheraton is one of my favorite hotels - but not in Puerto Rico!)
We head for the ship today, The Celebrity Summit, I hope it is better than the Sheraton! But it HAS to be!
Well new post when we get back. The Internet is too expensive on board. At least it's free here at the hotel.
David.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
This is NOT a political post.
I promise that I am not going to attack your favorite politician, whichever side of the aisle he or she is on.
As you know I have a penchant for figures, and today I would like to talk a bit about debt. Not your or my personal debt, but the debts of the Country, Businesses and Bankers.
In 1980 the combined federal and state debt was $2.3 Trillion, in 2007 it had risen to $11.2 Trillion. At 4%, actually slower than the GDP rose. (Gross Domestic Product.)
Government debt rose SLOWER than the other kinds of debt. Household debt - including mortgages rose about twice as fast as the GDP. Business debt rose at about 1 1/2 times as fast as the GDP.
BUT, the real key to our present financial woes lies in the debts of the banks, investment firms, and hedge funds, which grew almost SIX TIMES as fast as the GDP!
These are the nasty types , no, nasty is too nice a word for them, how about Obscene, Foul, Rotten types that have brought us to our present state. For their own ends. Even as the financial panic has scuttled the world's economy, they have been allowed to go on their mean way, unexamined.
We looked away, admiring people who could "earn" $1 million, $10 million, $100 million and even $1 billion or more in a year! What were we thinking? That maybe one day we could earn that?
Even worse, Congress, who is supposed to be working for us and the US, accepted millions from financial speculators, lobbyists and bankers. Bankers ALONE spent $450 million, just on federal election campaigns, just in 2009! Why? Why did they give millions of dollars to our 'elected' officials? Are we stupid? Why do we allow any Congressman, any Senator, or any official to accept ANYTHING from ANYONE?
Incidentally it was not their money that they gave to our fine Congressmen and Senators, in order to manipulate them into doing what the banks wanted, it was our money! Hard earned money that you and I had put into their custody for safekeeping.
In return for these "Donations", the federal government, in it's "Wisdom", dropped limits on interest rates, allowed banks and other financial firms to expand as much as they wanted, without any limit, changed the rules so there was no separation between investment banks (which are risky) and commercial banks, (that are insured by the government) (So that now the government is insuring ANYTHING AT ALL that any bank wants to do. However risky!) they, Congress, also authorized irresponsible derivative trading - gambling - but it also stopped states from prosecuting the gamblers under state law! (These bankers, please don't forget, are gambling with your money! And the government now backs them! How would you like the government to back you when you go to Las Vegas? Or the horse track? You could bet on whatever you wanted with no fear of losing! How great is that? And the banks have it even better, they are not even using their money, they are using YOUR money to bet with!!!)
And now for the Coup-de-Grace, the Federal Reserve Board, and all the other 'regulators', looked the other way while the mortgage industry went phsycopathic, and speculators drove the prices of commodities such as wheat and oil through the roof.
The executives in these big financial firms borrow huge sums of money at almost no interest, invest it in whatever is growing at the time - commodities, real estate, oil etc. collect vast profits for their firm, from which they pay themselves gigantic compensation packages. (They do that even if the firm loses money!) When the bubble bursts, all they have to do is go to the government to bail them out. No worries, as we used to say in the UK.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the guts to stand up to them (They'd be dumb to do that and kill the golden goose! The payoffs might stop!) With no one to hold them accountable, the executives make a killing - it doesn't matter if his company wins or loses. He wins. Big time - some of these guys make more every year than you could ever dream of making in a lifetime, or in ten lifetimes. And don't forget, it's your money. Sorry, it WAS your money. Yes it was, it came from you, from your work, not their work. They STOLE it from you. They would call it investing, but it's not investing, it's stealing.
They choose a company to "invest" in and then recommend all their 'investors' to put money in to it - having first "Invested' their money (Actually your money) When the price goes up, they sell and take the profit. (They call it profit, I call it stealing) Then they take more 'profit', because before they sold it, after it went up, they had already "sold" it in the future, short selling, or whatever they call it. Because they knew that when they sold, it would go down, so they make even more money because it went down - which they made it do. All with your money!! Do we admire these people? Some might, because they make money. But they don't "make" money, they steal money. Your money. You made the money, by working. The only way money is MADE is by working. When you work and make something, you create something with your work. That something is wealth. The "Investment" people are not making anything, they are simply stealing what you made. You worked and made the money, they took it. Get it?
This use of so many Trillions of dollars on speculating, - read gambling - by these bankers, - read gamblers - is why we are so stressed. For years these bloodsuckers have been taking money from us. If even a part of this money had been used to build schools, roads, water systems, communications, manufacturing, commercial development and environmental protection (My favorite), life for the middle class would be much better, and instead of debt we would have real assets. Like roads, bridges, clean water and land. Instead we have rich bankers - read thieves - and derivative traders who are good for, what? Good for stealing from the people who do the work, that's what they are good for. Oh yes, and for putting $100 million Van Gogh paintings in their boardrooms and homes, living in half a dozen houses spread around the world and flying between them in their corporate jet(S).
This financial system debt was toxic. Billions borrowed to bet on currencies going up or down, same for interest rates and goodness knows what else. Billions of dollars of your money - money that you put into their bank for safekeeping - and they used it for betting if the Swedish Kroner would go down in the next ten minutes! Is that the kind of behaviour that we want to protect? Apparently the US government wants to protect it. But it does none of us any good at all. It only profits the investment bankers. None of it comes back to you and I! None of it does the country any good at all. It simply allows a very select group of people to rob us!
A lot of this debt was made by mergers and acquisitions. What does that mean? It means that big 'investors' buy a business that is profitable, put it in hock, by borrowing huge amounts of money on it's reputation, which they then pay to themselves in the form of huge fees and bonuses. Often they inflate the worth of the business even more by firing half of its employees, making it even more profitable - for a short time - long enough for them to rape it even more. By the time they have finished, a good profitable business, employing hardworking stable employees, is bankrupt. But what do they care? They "invested" money in it. They can put a few more paintings on the wall, buy some more racehorses and a ranch or two to put them on, while you and I have to go out and look for a new job and try to save some more money for the bankers to steal from us.
When you "Invest" in the market, YOU are really gambling, because you are up against people who are manipulating the market. (They aren't gambling, they are onto a pretty sure thing.) For every dollar that the "investment banker" makes, someone else loses a dollar! I don't know if you had thought of that? But when that trader makes 10 million dollars for his company, (And "Earns" himself a multi million dollar bonus at the end of the year.) someone else lost 10 million dollars. Maybe not one person, but perhaps a thousand people lost $10,000 each? Or a million lost $10 each. That 10 million that he "Made", wasn't created out of thin air, it was taken from someone, or any number of someones.
Government debt, where did that come from? Come on, you know, from tax cuts for the rich! Not satisfied with allowing the "investment bankers" to steal from us with impunity, our "protectors" in Congress and the Senate, cut the taxes to the rich! The top 1% of Americans have 26% of it's income. And, they pay only 16% of it in taxes - less than you and I pay! (40 years ago, in 1970 the top 1% of Americans made 8% of the countries total income, and paid 40% of it in taxes, now they make 26% of the countries total income and pay 16% of it in taxes. Do you see a trend here? The income gap in the US is the biggest ever, anywhere, here or anywhere else in the world.)
When I had my first jobs, there people making TWICE as much as I was!! WOW! I aspired to making that much! I couldn't imagine making twice as much as I was! Now these greedy, greedy people make 100 or even 1,000 times as much as I do, or more! There is something wrong here. First there is no way they work 1,000 times as hard as I do! And not only that they don't work at all. They don't do any WORK, producing or making anything. No, they just take. You work, you make things, you produce something. The farmer produces something. They don't produce anything at all. They just take away what you make, for themselves and their rich friends.
Back to government debt. After tax cuts for the rich. The government took on the debts of the financial firms. (After giving them Billions of dollars, to prevent closing companies 'too big to fail". What did the bankers do with that money? They rewarded themselves for 'doing such a good job'- to the tune of $143 Billion dollars in bonuses - just on Wall Street. More than they paid themselves the previous year! $143 Billion dollars of YOUR money. That is YOUR and MY money, GIVEN to those sharks.!) Next, they spend an obscene amount on futile wars, wars that we cannot possibly win. Is that charity for the weapons builders? Not to mention the deaths and injuries to our fighting men and women, which is another huge drain on our resources. The loss of their contribution to our country and the cost of taking care of them.
Talking of health care, how come we spend twice as much as any other country in the entire world on health care, per person, and have worse health than most countries? That is a huge cost that goes into building our debt. One reason for that is we have a for profit health care system. No other country makes a profit on its health care, except as needed to pay for hospitals and health care workers. Half the cost of our drugs is in the cost of advertising them! Nowhere else are drugs advertised on radio, TV and in newspapers and magazines, can you imagine what that adds to the cost of the drugs that you buy? It doubles their cost. Every Doctor has an X-Ray machine, Cat Scan, MRI and whatever else in his basement, so naturally he is going to send you for at least one of these tests, after all he has to pay for those machines! I have to get an MRI of my brain every year, the cost is $1500. In Japan the cost is $93. The same MRI that costs $1500 here is $93 in Japan. The Health Insurance Companies have thousands of people whose only job is to figure out ways to not cover the treatment you need. Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, the UK, Canada and every other civilized country in the world has a National Health System that covers all of their citizens at HALF the cost of our for profit system! And most of these countries have a healthier population! A better health care system at half the cost! You will of course be told that care is rationed, etc, etc. Not true, if you need care now, you get it now. On the other hand if you need a less pressing or optional treatment you may have to wait. For example, if you break your hip, you go in and have it replaced today. But if you have a painful hip that will need replacing at some time in the future, you will be put on a list and be fitted in when there is a space. If it gets more painful and needs to be done, it will be done. I have lived with this system for my whole life, when I lived in the UK, and now through my parents who still live in the UK. Not a perfect system - but is any system in this world perfect? But they like it in the UK, and so do just about all the other countries that use it, according to a study that I saw on a Maryland Public Television Program. Who wouldn't, it costs HALF of our imperfect system. How is it paid for? Everyone pays a % of their paycheck - just like Soc Sec - say 10% and they are covered. If you get sick you are still covered! If you think 10% is too much, well I paid my own Health Insurance when I worked, it cost $12,000 a year and wasn't all that great. I earned about $50,000 a year - so I paid about 25% of my earnings for health Insurance. I would have been ecstatic to have only paid 10%! If you get health Insurance included with your job it may not seem such a good idea. But if you think about it, you pay it one way or another! If it costs your employer 20% of your salary to cover you, and you could get the same (Or better coverage) for 10% he could afford to raise your salary by 10%! And you would still have health care. How do you like them apples?
It is way past time for Congress and The Senate to restrain themselves from taking the bribes, rebuffing the banks and putting the brakes on the banks and financial institution's speculations. It is ruining us all - they are giving the cheats everything they want, with no restrictions. And what is worse, we are paying for it.
As you know I have a penchant for figures, and today I would like to talk a bit about debt. Not your or my personal debt, but the debts of the Country, Businesses and Bankers.
In 1980 the combined federal and state debt was $2.3 Trillion, in 2007 it had risen to $11.2 Trillion. At 4%, actually slower than the GDP rose. (Gross Domestic Product.)
Government debt rose SLOWER than the other kinds of debt. Household debt - including mortgages rose about twice as fast as the GDP. Business debt rose at about 1 1/2 times as fast as the GDP.
BUT, the real key to our present financial woes lies in the debts of the banks, investment firms, and hedge funds, which grew almost SIX TIMES as fast as the GDP!
These are the nasty types , no, nasty is too nice a word for them, how about Obscene, Foul, Rotten types that have brought us to our present state. For their own ends. Even as the financial panic has scuttled the world's economy, they have been allowed to go on their mean way, unexamined.
We looked away, admiring people who could "earn" $1 million, $10 million, $100 million and even $1 billion or more in a year! What were we thinking? That maybe one day we could earn that?
Even worse, Congress, who is supposed to be working for us and the US, accepted millions from financial speculators, lobbyists and bankers. Bankers ALONE spent $450 million, just on federal election campaigns, just in 2009! Why? Why did they give millions of dollars to our 'elected' officials? Are we stupid? Why do we allow any Congressman, any Senator, or any official to accept ANYTHING from ANYONE?
Incidentally it was not their money that they gave to our fine Congressmen and Senators, in order to manipulate them into doing what the banks wanted, it was our money! Hard earned money that you and I had put into their custody for safekeeping.
In return for these "Donations", the federal government, in it's "Wisdom", dropped limits on interest rates, allowed banks and other financial firms to expand as much as they wanted, without any limit, changed the rules so there was no separation between investment banks (which are risky) and commercial banks, (that are insured by the government) (So that now the government is insuring ANYTHING AT ALL that any bank wants to do. However risky!) they, Congress, also authorized irresponsible derivative trading - gambling - but it also stopped states from prosecuting the gamblers under state law! (These bankers, please don't forget, are gambling with your money! And the government now backs them! How would you like the government to back you when you go to Las Vegas? Or the horse track? You could bet on whatever you wanted with no fear of losing! How great is that? And the banks have it even better, they are not even using their money, they are using YOUR money to bet with!!!)
And now for the Coup-de-Grace, the Federal Reserve Board, and all the other 'regulators', looked the other way while the mortgage industry went phsycopathic, and speculators drove the prices of commodities such as wheat and oil through the roof.
The executives in these big financial firms borrow huge sums of money at almost no interest, invest it in whatever is growing at the time - commodities, real estate, oil etc. collect vast profits for their firm, from which they pay themselves gigantic compensation packages. (They do that even if the firm loses money!) When the bubble bursts, all they have to do is go to the government to bail them out. No worries, as we used to say in the UK.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the guts to stand up to them (They'd be dumb to do that and kill the golden goose! The payoffs might stop!) With no one to hold them accountable, the executives make a killing - it doesn't matter if his company wins or loses. He wins. Big time - some of these guys make more every year than you could ever dream of making in a lifetime, or in ten lifetimes. And don't forget, it's your money. Sorry, it WAS your money. Yes it was, it came from you, from your work, not their work. They STOLE it from you. They would call it investing, but it's not investing, it's stealing.
They choose a company to "invest" in and then recommend all their 'investors' to put money in to it - having first "Invested' their money (Actually your money) When the price goes up, they sell and take the profit. (They call it profit, I call it stealing) Then they take more 'profit', because before they sold it, after it went up, they had already "sold" it in the future, short selling, or whatever they call it. Because they knew that when they sold, it would go down, so they make even more money because it went down - which they made it do. All with your money!! Do we admire these people? Some might, because they make money. But they don't "make" money, they steal money. Your money. You made the money, by working. The only way money is MADE is by working. When you work and make something, you create something with your work. That something is wealth. The "Investment" people are not making anything, they are simply stealing what you made. You worked and made the money, they took it. Get it?
This use of so many Trillions of dollars on speculating, - read gambling - by these bankers, - read gamblers - is why we are so stressed. For years these bloodsuckers have been taking money from us. If even a part of this money had been used to build schools, roads, water systems, communications, manufacturing, commercial development and environmental protection (My favorite), life for the middle class would be much better, and instead of debt we would have real assets. Like roads, bridges, clean water and land. Instead we have rich bankers - read thieves - and derivative traders who are good for, what? Good for stealing from the people who do the work, that's what they are good for. Oh yes, and for putting $100 million Van Gogh paintings in their boardrooms and homes, living in half a dozen houses spread around the world and flying between them in their corporate jet(S).
This financial system debt was toxic. Billions borrowed to bet on currencies going up or down, same for interest rates and goodness knows what else. Billions of dollars of your money - money that you put into their bank for safekeeping - and they used it for betting if the Swedish Kroner would go down in the next ten minutes! Is that the kind of behaviour that we want to protect? Apparently the US government wants to protect it. But it does none of us any good at all. It only profits the investment bankers. None of it comes back to you and I! None of it does the country any good at all. It simply allows a very select group of people to rob us!
A lot of this debt was made by mergers and acquisitions. What does that mean? It means that big 'investors' buy a business that is profitable, put it in hock, by borrowing huge amounts of money on it's reputation, which they then pay to themselves in the form of huge fees and bonuses. Often they inflate the worth of the business even more by firing half of its employees, making it even more profitable - for a short time - long enough for them to rape it even more. By the time they have finished, a good profitable business, employing hardworking stable employees, is bankrupt. But what do they care? They "invested" money in it. They can put a few more paintings on the wall, buy some more racehorses and a ranch or two to put them on, while you and I have to go out and look for a new job and try to save some more money for the bankers to steal from us.
When you "Invest" in the market, YOU are really gambling, because you are up against people who are manipulating the market. (They aren't gambling, they are onto a pretty sure thing.) For every dollar that the "investment banker" makes, someone else loses a dollar! I don't know if you had thought of that? But when that trader makes 10 million dollars for his company, (And "Earns" himself a multi million dollar bonus at the end of the year.) someone else lost 10 million dollars. Maybe not one person, but perhaps a thousand people lost $10,000 each? Or a million lost $10 each. That 10 million that he "Made", wasn't created out of thin air, it was taken from someone, or any number of someones.
Government debt, where did that come from? Come on, you know, from tax cuts for the rich! Not satisfied with allowing the "investment bankers" to steal from us with impunity, our "protectors" in Congress and the Senate, cut the taxes to the rich! The top 1% of Americans have 26% of it's income. And, they pay only 16% of it in taxes - less than you and I pay! (40 years ago, in 1970 the top 1% of Americans made 8% of the countries total income, and paid 40% of it in taxes, now they make 26% of the countries total income and pay 16% of it in taxes. Do you see a trend here? The income gap in the US is the biggest ever, anywhere, here or anywhere else in the world.)
When I had my first jobs, there people making TWICE as much as I was!! WOW! I aspired to making that much! I couldn't imagine making twice as much as I was! Now these greedy, greedy people make 100 or even 1,000 times as much as I do, or more! There is something wrong here. First there is no way they work 1,000 times as hard as I do! And not only that they don't work at all. They don't do any WORK, producing or making anything. No, they just take. You work, you make things, you produce something. The farmer produces something. They don't produce anything at all. They just take away what you make, for themselves and their rich friends.
Back to government debt. After tax cuts for the rich. The government took on the debts of the financial firms. (After giving them Billions of dollars, to prevent closing companies 'too big to fail". What did the bankers do with that money? They rewarded themselves for 'doing such a good job'- to the tune of $143 Billion dollars in bonuses - just on Wall Street. More than they paid themselves the previous year! $143 Billion dollars of YOUR money. That is YOUR and MY money, GIVEN to those sharks.!) Next, they spend an obscene amount on futile wars, wars that we cannot possibly win. Is that charity for the weapons builders? Not to mention the deaths and injuries to our fighting men and women, which is another huge drain on our resources. The loss of their contribution to our country and the cost of taking care of them.
Talking of health care, how come we spend twice as much as any other country in the entire world on health care, per person, and have worse health than most countries? That is a huge cost that goes into building our debt. One reason for that is we have a for profit health care system. No other country makes a profit on its health care, except as needed to pay for hospitals and health care workers. Half the cost of our drugs is in the cost of advertising them! Nowhere else are drugs advertised on radio, TV and in newspapers and magazines, can you imagine what that adds to the cost of the drugs that you buy? It doubles their cost. Every Doctor has an X-Ray machine, Cat Scan, MRI and whatever else in his basement, so naturally he is going to send you for at least one of these tests, after all he has to pay for those machines! I have to get an MRI of my brain every year, the cost is $1500. In Japan the cost is $93. The same MRI that costs $1500 here is $93 in Japan. The Health Insurance Companies have thousands of people whose only job is to figure out ways to not cover the treatment you need. Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, the UK, Canada and every other civilized country in the world has a National Health System that covers all of their citizens at HALF the cost of our for profit system! And most of these countries have a healthier population! A better health care system at half the cost! You will of course be told that care is rationed, etc, etc. Not true, if you need care now, you get it now. On the other hand if you need a less pressing or optional treatment you may have to wait. For example, if you break your hip, you go in and have it replaced today. But if you have a painful hip that will need replacing at some time in the future, you will be put on a list and be fitted in when there is a space. If it gets more painful and needs to be done, it will be done. I have lived with this system for my whole life, when I lived in the UK, and now through my parents who still live in the UK. Not a perfect system - but is any system in this world perfect? But they like it in the UK, and so do just about all the other countries that use it, according to a study that I saw on a Maryland Public Television Program. Who wouldn't, it costs HALF of our imperfect system. How is it paid for? Everyone pays a % of their paycheck - just like Soc Sec - say 10% and they are covered. If you get sick you are still covered! If you think 10% is too much, well I paid my own Health Insurance when I worked, it cost $12,000 a year and wasn't all that great. I earned about $50,000 a year - so I paid about 25% of my earnings for health Insurance. I would have been ecstatic to have only paid 10%! If you get health Insurance included with your job it may not seem such a good idea. But if you think about it, you pay it one way or another! If it costs your employer 20% of your salary to cover you, and you could get the same (Or better coverage) for 10% he could afford to raise your salary by 10%! And you would still have health care. How do you like them apples?
It is way past time for Congress and The Senate to restrain themselves from taking the bribes, rebuffing the banks and putting the brakes on the banks and financial institution's speculations. It is ruining us all - they are giving the cheats everything they want, with no restrictions. And what is worse, we are paying for it.
Hello, is there anybody out there?
Good morning, is there anybody out there? I KNOW that there are. My report says that 23 people read my Blog last week, 50 the week before and 46 the previous week. I don't know who they are. I just get the numbers. If I want to go through a whole lot of delving I can get the Sate or the Country that they are from, but not who they are.
I would dearly love to hear some comments. Last week was a banner week, I received 3 comments, one just said "testing". So it occurred to me that some people may not know how to comment. If you click on the 'comments' word at the bottom of the post it will tell you how. I am sure you can do it, if you can't, e-mail me at julia-david@comcast.net and we will figure it out together!
It also occurs to me that maybe there is nothing to comment ON! After all, what can one say about a bunch of bird and weather observations, perhaps something more controversial would elicit a comment?
OK, this is your lucky day! I am working on a post that is more controversial, I think. It's not controversial to me, but there are a bunch of my opinions in it. Maybe you could comment on those. It is not political in nature, in other words there is no criticism of one party or one person or another, it is mostly about the system as a whole and how it managed to get us into the financial pickle that we are now in. Because I started it a few days ago, when I post it will appear back on the day that I started work on it. Which was January the 4th. So you will need to page down through 3 or 4 posts to find it. Look for it later today or tomorrow. A certain amount of research is involved, so it takes time to put together.
I look forward to hearing from you. And a Happy New Year.
David.
I would dearly love to hear some comments. Last week was a banner week, I received 3 comments, one just said "testing". So it occurred to me that some people may not know how to comment. If you click on the 'comments' word at the bottom of the post it will tell you how. I am sure you can do it, if you can't, e-mail me at julia-david@comcast.net and we will figure it out together!
It also occurs to me that maybe there is nothing to comment ON! After all, what can one say about a bunch of bird and weather observations, perhaps something more controversial would elicit a comment?
OK, this is your lucky day! I am working on a post that is more controversial, I think. It's not controversial to me, but there are a bunch of my opinions in it. Maybe you could comment on those. It is not political in nature, in other words there is no criticism of one party or one person or another, it is mostly about the system as a whole and how it managed to get us into the financial pickle that we are now in. Because I started it a few days ago, when I post it will appear back on the day that I started work on it. Which was January the 4th. So you will need to page down through 3 or 4 posts to find it. Look for it later today or tomorrow. A certain amount of research is involved, so it takes time to put together.
I look forward to hearing from you. And a Happy New Year.
David.
Another lovely sunrise.
Yes, I was treated to another fabulous Sunrise this morning. Along with a bevy, nay a veritable battery, of beautiful birds. It seems that the few birds that have survived and remain in our horribly polluted environment cannot resist The Lake. They flock here by the dozens. Already today, I have seen a flock of Canada Geese, several Great Blue Herons, (What DO they eat when The Lake is frozen over?), a mess of Seagulls, is that the correct term? and a bunch of LBJ's - that stands for Little Brown Jobs, or in other words Unidentified Flying Birds, or UFB's. I do recognize some of them, the Blue Jays who are loud, bright and very, very busy, the Crows, big and boisterous, and the true LBJ's that look like Sparrows but aren't.
Well time for a second Cup of coffee I think and then to work.
Well time for a second Cup of coffee I think and then to work.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Sunrise.
The Sunrise this morning was spectacular. With all the windows we have in our Home in Paradise it was impossible to miss.
The house is oriented to take advantage of the Sunset - thus Sunset Cottage. But the Sun, although coming up on the 'other' side of the Cottage nevertheless likes to makes its presence known. And it did so today "in spades". As I walked/stumbled through the house just before 7.00am towards my coffee pot, I could see Mr Sun (Mrs?) poking his/her nose through every window in the house. I took the time to get the coffee on, first things first, before going outside onto the deck to fill my senses. Stretching from the North East to the South East was a Sunrise to rival any Sunset, but it didn't end there, no, it continued around the entire 360 degrees, reducing in intensity it is true, as it reached the West, but still a wondrous sight to help open my still blurry eyes.
I stood on the deck for a short while - the temperature was 28 degrees - admiring it. The cause of the exhibition was the light cloud cover. And the fact that the clouds were arranged neatly in rows, so the pink fluffy clouds just went on and on, around and around, completely encircling me in their show. A pageant fit for a King, but enjoyed, I felt, only by me. My own private showing.
How could I ever think such a thing, when it was so public?
Fifteen minutes later, after I had opened the chickens, fed the cats and got the fire going, it was over. That may be one reason it is so special, because it is so short, unlike the sunsets that often last for an hour.
But it wasn't over, not really, not yet. Because although the colors had gone from the sky, the Sun was now high enough to hit the tops of the trees on the other side of The Lake - one of my favorite times of the day - they seemed to explode in fire, igniting as the rays moved over them. Is God a pyromaniac I wondered? The ice on The Lake was clothed in pink. Have you ever seen pink ice? Not like the ice on My Lake you haven't, come over sometime to see it. Let me know you are coming first, and I'll put the coffee on. If you dress warmly enough we can sit on the deck and watch. Close together, for warmth - if you are the right sex and the right person. Unfortunately Julia does not surface early enough to enjoy all this. (So we should be safe!)
There, as Julia would say, "Sex raises it's ugly head again." or as a master at my school once said to me in class, when I was about 14 or 15. "Mind in the rut again, Liddle?"
Well it time to take Julia her morning tea. Bye.
The house is oriented to take advantage of the Sunset - thus Sunset Cottage. But the Sun, although coming up on the 'other' side of the Cottage nevertheless likes to makes its presence known. And it did so today "in spades". As I walked/stumbled through the house just before 7.00am towards my coffee pot, I could see Mr Sun (Mrs?) poking his/her nose through every window in the house. I took the time to get the coffee on, first things first, before going outside onto the deck to fill my senses. Stretching from the North East to the South East was a Sunrise to rival any Sunset, but it didn't end there, no, it continued around the entire 360 degrees, reducing in intensity it is true, as it reached the West, but still a wondrous sight to help open my still blurry eyes.
I stood on the deck for a short while - the temperature was 28 degrees - admiring it. The cause of the exhibition was the light cloud cover. And the fact that the clouds were arranged neatly in rows, so the pink fluffy clouds just went on and on, around and around, completely encircling me in their show. A pageant fit for a King, but enjoyed, I felt, only by me. My own private showing.
How could I ever think such a thing, when it was so public?
Fifteen minutes later, after I had opened the chickens, fed the cats and got the fire going, it was over. That may be one reason it is so special, because it is so short, unlike the sunsets that often last for an hour.
But it wasn't over, not really, not yet. Because although the colors had gone from the sky, the Sun was now high enough to hit the tops of the trees on the other side of The Lake - one of my favorite times of the day - they seemed to explode in fire, igniting as the rays moved over them. Is God a pyromaniac I wondered? The ice on The Lake was clothed in pink. Have you ever seen pink ice? Not like the ice on My Lake you haven't, come over sometime to see it. Let me know you are coming first, and I'll put the coffee on. If you dress warmly enough we can sit on the deck and watch. Close together, for warmth - if you are the right sex and the right person. Unfortunately Julia does not surface early enough to enjoy all this. (So we should be safe!)
There, as Julia would say, "Sex raises it's ugly head again." or as a master at my school once said to me in class, when I was about 14 or 15. "Mind in the rut again, Liddle?"
Well it time to take Julia her morning tea. Bye.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year.
I would like to wish all my friends a very Happy New Year. Lets hope that 2011 will be a better year all round for us all.
Especially, I wish for peace everywhere in the world. Is that asking too much?
Moving right along, could we also have good health, happiness and prosperity? Please.
This morning was, as usual on The Lake, another beautiful one. The air was calm, and warm. Very warm! I could not believe it when I looked out and saw a thick mist over The Lake. Then I checked the thermometer - 54 degrees! - at 7.00am. Unbelievable, it has been cold and windy for several weeks it seems. The Lake which has been frozen for weeks too, looked calm and wet. It has not completely thawed of course, just the surface, so there is a thin layer of water on top of the ice, which makes the surface so calm that it is like a mirror. It also rained a little in the night and that added to the water on top of the ice. The mist alternately appears and dissapears, with no apparent reason. There is no wind at all, not even a slight breeze. Mr & Mrs Heron appeared and glided over the silent scene, some ducks were diving for their breakfast around the edges of The Lake which has thawed, and out in the middle is a collection of Gulls apparently standing ON the water! A strange sight indeed.
Well I'm off to get some breakfast and to prepare to visit some dear friends, one at least who is in need of that earlier wish for better Health in the New Year.
If anyone out there is reading my Blog, would you mind leaving a comment? Just to let me know that I am not all alone out here! I try to post a variety of subjects here, although I know that The Lake features heavily. There is also my Fun With Figures Blogs, and even a little bit of Political comment - but I try to keep that to a minimum because unlike Europeans, Americans don't like their man/woman to be critisised at all! Even when he/she is wrong! Even when they KNOW their guy/gal is wrong, any criticism is tantamount to WAR on them personally! Come on folks, get with the program, ALL politicians are, as one good friend (Who I am going to nominate as an Honorary European) likes to say, are "Pileofshitens". A more apt description of AT LEAST 99% of politicians I cannot imagine.
Well, breakfast calls - and don't forget to leave a comment, please, pretty please. XXX
Especially, I wish for peace everywhere in the world. Is that asking too much?
Moving right along, could we also have good health, happiness and prosperity? Please.
This morning was, as usual on The Lake, another beautiful one. The air was calm, and warm. Very warm! I could not believe it when I looked out and saw a thick mist over The Lake. Then I checked the thermometer - 54 degrees! - at 7.00am. Unbelievable, it has been cold and windy for several weeks it seems. The Lake which has been frozen for weeks too, looked calm and wet. It has not completely thawed of course, just the surface, so there is a thin layer of water on top of the ice, which makes the surface so calm that it is like a mirror. It also rained a little in the night and that added to the water on top of the ice. The mist alternately appears and dissapears, with no apparent reason. There is no wind at all, not even a slight breeze. Mr & Mrs Heron appeared and glided over the silent scene, some ducks were diving for their breakfast around the edges of The Lake which has thawed, and out in the middle is a collection of Gulls apparently standing ON the water! A strange sight indeed.
Well I'm off to get some breakfast and to prepare to visit some dear friends, one at least who is in need of that earlier wish for better Health in the New Year.
If anyone out there is reading my Blog, would you mind leaving a comment? Just to let me know that I am not all alone out here! I try to post a variety of subjects here, although I know that The Lake features heavily. There is also my Fun With Figures Blogs, and even a little bit of Political comment - but I try to keep that to a minimum because unlike Europeans, Americans don't like their man/woman to be critisised at all! Even when he/she is wrong! Even when they KNOW their guy/gal is wrong, any criticism is tantamount to WAR on them personally! Come on folks, get with the program, ALL politicians are, as one good friend (Who I am going to nominate as an Honorary European) likes to say, are "Pileofshitens". A more apt description of AT LEAST 99% of politicians I cannot imagine.
Well, breakfast calls - and don't forget to leave a comment, please, pretty please. XXX
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Eagles again.
I looked out at "My" Lake this morning to the sight of three Bald Eagles sitting out on the ice in the middle of The Lake. They didn't seem to be doing anything in particular, just standing there, fairly close together. They were not eating. Just standing. Presumably, I'm sure, the same three that we have observed a number of times recently. There are two adults and one immature.
The weather is much nicer today. The wind has gone, the sun is out and the temperature is already just above freezing. This is good as I have a few errands to run today, plus a work trip to Arlington Virginia.
The weather is much nicer today. The wind has gone, the sun is out and the temperature is already just above freezing. This is good as I have a few errands to run today, plus a work trip to Arlington Virginia.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Snow.
Now folks, we have all heard of Lake Effect Snow, right? Well I have the miniature version of lake effect snow, here at The Lake. I'm looking out now at my own rendition of that phenomenon, and while I cannot comment on whether the snow is building up on one side of The Lake or the other - because I am NOT about to go out in this and measure it, there is a definite effect of some kind or another.
There is a strong wind blowing and the effect of this wind is to send the snow across The Lake in clouds. I'm sure if I were out in it I would see it as driving snow. But from inside I see the wind pushing the snow sideways. It looks like a giant cloud of snow being propelled sideways by some unseen, but not unheard, force. Yes the wind is rattling not just the windows but everything outside not tied down.
I am glad to be inside during this, almost, raging storm.
Well, I do have to go out in it - to close up those poor chickens.
I already went over the road to feed our neighbors cat, they are out in it. On the way to Pittsburgh, can you imagine anyone wanting to got to Pittsburgh anytime, let alone in this mess?
I'm going to close the chickens, load up the fire and settle down to some TV, or a good book. (I am recommending Ken Follet's "World Without End." right now.)
Good night, keep warm.
David.
There is a strong wind blowing and the effect of this wind is to send the snow across The Lake in clouds. I'm sure if I were out in it I would see it as driving snow. But from inside I see the wind pushing the snow sideways. It looks like a giant cloud of snow being propelled sideways by some unseen, but not unheard, force. Yes the wind is rattling not just the windows but everything outside not tied down.
I am glad to be inside during this, almost, raging storm.
Well, I do have to go out in it - to close up those poor chickens.
I already went over the road to feed our neighbors cat, they are out in it. On the way to Pittsburgh, can you imagine anyone wanting to got to Pittsburgh anytime, let alone in this mess?
I'm going to close the chickens, load up the fire and settle down to some TV, or a good book. (I am recommending Ken Follet's "World Without End." right now.)
Good night, keep warm.
David.
Sarah's Candy Wreath Business.
It occurs to me that although I did a little write up on my daughter's Massage Business, I should also mention that she is multi talented - I am sure you all understand that this is almost inevitable, as she is my daughter! Anyway, she also does Candy Wreaths. These can be viewed on her website at www.sarahsdecorativecandywreaths.shutterfly.com
Yes, it is a very long address, far too long in my humble opinion, giving way too many chances to make an error. But what do I know, I am only her father.
Anyway, it is well worth a visit, and you should visit, because it is yet another opportunity to obtain another unique gift for a loved one, or one of those many people in our well heeled society that "Has everything".
I can assure you even those elevated persons of the elite populous do not have one of Sarah's Wreaths. These are truly 'works of art'. Worthy of a place of honor in the home of the most discriminating among us.
Go view them at your very earliest opportunity and see if you don't agree with me.
Signed Sarah's father. (And no, I don't get a cut!)
Yes, it is a very long address, far too long in my humble opinion, giving way too many chances to make an error. But what do I know, I am only her father.
Anyway, it is well worth a visit, and you should visit, because it is yet another opportunity to obtain another unique gift for a loved one, or one of those many people in our well heeled society that "Has everything".
I can assure you even those elevated persons of the elite populous do not have one of Sarah's Wreaths. These are truly 'works of art'. Worthy of a place of honor in the home of the most discriminating among us.
Go view them at your very earliest opportunity and see if you don't agree with me.
Signed Sarah's father. (And no, I don't get a cut!)
Oysters.
Julia has chastised me for not mentioning the addition of between 700 and 1,000 to our "Family". She is most upset about my failure to bring them up in one of my Blogs. After all, she is out there bottle feeding them every day - not really!
We put a "Box" under our pier with between 700 and 1,000 young oysters (We didn't count them) in it. They will grow there for approximately a year, after which we are told they will be large enough to be transferred to a new, protected, home somewhere in The Bay where they will, hopefully, live out their lives Cleaning The Chesapeake Bay.
At one time there were twenty Billion oysters in The Bay carrying out this vital function every day of their lives. A function that they were perfectly designed to do. Unfortunately some (Very brave or very hungry!) person discovered that oysters were good to eat. At that point they were doomed! Like every other thing in nature that Man has had any kind of contact with, we seem to think our duty is to try to destroy it! There are now only maybe twenty million oysters left, for the mathematically challenged among you, that is one oyster for every 1,000 oysters that were there when we arrived in The Bay. At the height of their numbers oysters were able to filter all of the water in The Bay every few days! However at 1,000th of their previous numbers, it would take instead YEARS for them to filter it once!
Why is it that we can never learn from our mistakes? The Bay is dirty, it needs cleaning, oysters could clean it for us - for free! But still we cannot see that. If we took some of a resource and left the rest, we would have an everlasting resource. But we cannot do that.
As a simple explanation, I have some mint in my garden, I take some to make some mint sauce. next time I want mint sauce I get some more. There will always be more there, because I only take as much as I need. BUT, if I were an "Entrepreneur", or a "Manufacturer", Or a "Businessman" I would instead take ALL of the mint and make mint sauce to sell. I would then have none left! Duh. So, I would go looking for more mint else where, taking all that I can find everywhere I find it! Duh. Soon there is none to be found anywhere. Duh. If instead I had taken just enough that the mint could replenish itself - say half of the crop each year - I could continue to exploit it ad infinitum. Is that hard to understand? Not for me, but it is, apparently, for most people.
Applying this to the Oyster population of The Chesapeake Bay, we could take some, leaving the rest to reproduce. Or we could take from part of the Bay - say half of it - leaving the remaining areas to replenish the whole Bay. Or we could rotate - as a farmer does his fields - and harvest from designated areas of the Bay for a few years and then close that area off and allow harvesting in another area, while the first area replenishes. Pretty simple huh? But no, we have to take ALL. So what do we have left? Very little, except a lot to complain about which we do vociferously, often and long. Not introducing our own failings into the equation at all. Why can we not see that we do these things to ourselves?
And it is in our power to correct it.
Still in the Chesapeake Bay, we have also destroyed the shoals of Menhaden that used to be here. Menhaden, sometimes known as Alewives form the bottom of the food chain. They roamed The Chesapeake Bay by the Billions when we arrived here, filtering gallons of water, per minute - each fish! They filtered out the tiny flora that would otherwise have clouded up the water (As it does now - further hurting the ability of the Oysters to survive) and changing it into . . . fish! That fish was the food of the bigger fish that were here then. Six foot long Salmon - all gone now, schools of 140 pound Striped Bass and so many whales that they were a danger to shipping! All of those fish, and many birds, depended on the lowly Menhaden for their survival. The Menhaden may be the most important fish, period. It is no good to us for eating, being very bony and oily, but it is a perfect food for other fish.
A company called Omega Protein has almost singlehandedly eliminated the Menhaden. They find a school, put a net around them and scoop them all up. They are then made into fish meal, to feed to other fish, or for fertilizer, or pet, or poultry food. They are systematically eliminating one the most important fish in the seas today. Apart from being food for other fish, animals and birds they swim around 24 hours a day with their mouths wide open filtering 4 gallons of The Bay's waters EVERY MINUTE! And they do this for free. Can you imagine what it would cost us to do this? They then convert that gunk into fish, at the same time allowing sunlight to reach the oysters and the Bay's Grasses.
All this stuff about restoring The Bay, it would restore itself if we would only allow it. If the Menhaden were allowed to return they would clean the water, allowing the oysters to also return and clean the water, allowing the grasses to return and clean the water and shelter the young fish and crabs who would also clean the water.
But instead of sheltering oysters, menhaden, grasses and the myriad of life forms important to The Bay's survival (and our survival), we shelter companies like Omega Protein whose only function is to line their pockets by destroying The Bay. I am told there are a few remaining Menhaden schools. (When I came here just 40 years ago, I would go out onto The Bay fishing and see the water boiling with fish - huge schools of Menhaden, clouds of Gulls would be circling, picking up the bits of Menhaden floating after the attacks of the schools of Striped Bass and Bluefish circling under them.) Those magnificent fish have been decimated by overfishing too but also by the removal of their main food source - the Menhaden.
A fleet of spotter planes is maintained that circles The Bay looking for the few remaining Menhaden, when a small school is spotted (Because that is all that is left) they call in the ships to vacuum them up. With the demise of the Menhaden we may see the end of fish! Period!
And as I said, please don't forget. it is within our power to correct this carnage, this massacre of our beloved Chesapeake Bay.
We put a "Box" under our pier with between 700 and 1,000 young oysters (We didn't count them) in it. They will grow there for approximately a year, after which we are told they will be large enough to be transferred to a new, protected, home somewhere in The Bay where they will, hopefully, live out their lives Cleaning The Chesapeake Bay.
At one time there were twenty Billion oysters in The Bay carrying out this vital function every day of their lives. A function that they were perfectly designed to do. Unfortunately some (Very brave or very hungry!) person discovered that oysters were good to eat. At that point they were doomed! Like every other thing in nature that Man has had any kind of contact with, we seem to think our duty is to try to destroy it! There are now only maybe twenty million oysters left, for the mathematically challenged among you, that is one oyster for every 1,000 oysters that were there when we arrived in The Bay. At the height of their numbers oysters were able to filter all of the water in The Bay every few days! However at 1,000th of their previous numbers, it would take instead YEARS for them to filter it once!
Why is it that we can never learn from our mistakes? The Bay is dirty, it needs cleaning, oysters could clean it for us - for free! But still we cannot see that. If we took some of a resource and left the rest, we would have an everlasting resource. But we cannot do that.
As a simple explanation, I have some mint in my garden, I take some to make some mint sauce. next time I want mint sauce I get some more. There will always be more there, because I only take as much as I need. BUT, if I were an "Entrepreneur", or a "Manufacturer", Or a "Businessman" I would instead take ALL of the mint and make mint sauce to sell. I would then have none left! Duh. So, I would go looking for more mint else where, taking all that I can find everywhere I find it! Duh. Soon there is none to be found anywhere. Duh. If instead I had taken just enough that the mint could replenish itself - say half of the crop each year - I could continue to exploit it ad infinitum. Is that hard to understand? Not for me, but it is, apparently, for most people.
Applying this to the Oyster population of The Chesapeake Bay, we could take some, leaving the rest to reproduce. Or we could take from part of the Bay - say half of it - leaving the remaining areas to replenish the whole Bay. Or we could rotate - as a farmer does his fields - and harvest from designated areas of the Bay for a few years and then close that area off and allow harvesting in another area, while the first area replenishes. Pretty simple huh? But no, we have to take ALL. So what do we have left? Very little, except a lot to complain about which we do vociferously, often and long. Not introducing our own failings into the equation at all. Why can we not see that we do these things to ourselves?
And it is in our power to correct it.
Still in the Chesapeake Bay, we have also destroyed the shoals of Menhaden that used to be here. Menhaden, sometimes known as Alewives form the bottom of the food chain. They roamed The Chesapeake Bay by the Billions when we arrived here, filtering gallons of water, per minute - each fish! They filtered out the tiny flora that would otherwise have clouded up the water (As it does now - further hurting the ability of the Oysters to survive) and changing it into . . . fish! That fish was the food of the bigger fish that were here then. Six foot long Salmon - all gone now, schools of 140 pound Striped Bass and so many whales that they were a danger to shipping! All of those fish, and many birds, depended on the lowly Menhaden for their survival. The Menhaden may be the most important fish, period. It is no good to us for eating, being very bony and oily, but it is a perfect food for other fish.
A company called Omega Protein has almost singlehandedly eliminated the Menhaden. They find a school, put a net around them and scoop them all up. They are then made into fish meal, to feed to other fish, or for fertilizer, or pet, or poultry food. They are systematically eliminating one the most important fish in the seas today. Apart from being food for other fish, animals and birds they swim around 24 hours a day with their mouths wide open filtering 4 gallons of The Bay's waters EVERY MINUTE! And they do this for free. Can you imagine what it would cost us to do this? They then convert that gunk into fish, at the same time allowing sunlight to reach the oysters and the Bay's Grasses.
All this stuff about restoring The Bay, it would restore itself if we would only allow it. If the Menhaden were allowed to return they would clean the water, allowing the oysters to also return and clean the water, allowing the grasses to return and clean the water and shelter the young fish and crabs who would also clean the water.
But instead of sheltering oysters, menhaden, grasses and the myriad of life forms important to The Bay's survival (and our survival), we shelter companies like Omega Protein whose only function is to line their pockets by destroying The Bay. I am told there are a few remaining Menhaden schools. (When I came here just 40 years ago, I would go out onto The Bay fishing and see the water boiling with fish - huge schools of Menhaden, clouds of Gulls would be circling, picking up the bits of Menhaden floating after the attacks of the schools of Striped Bass and Bluefish circling under them.) Those magnificent fish have been decimated by overfishing too but also by the removal of their main food source - the Menhaden.
A fleet of spotter planes is maintained that circles The Bay looking for the few remaining Menhaden, when a small school is spotted (Because that is all that is left) they call in the ships to vacuum them up. With the demise of the Menhaden we may see the end of fish! Period!
And as I said, please don't forget. it is within our power to correct this carnage, this massacre of our beloved Chesapeake Bay.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Christmas Morning
It's Xmas Morning, cool, 34 degrees, and a little grey, but no snow - yet! We are expecting a White Xmas, but it's not here yet. Soooooo.....
Merry Christmas to everyone.
With Love from The Silver Fox
XOXOXO
Merry Christmas to everyone.
With Love from The Silver Fox
XOXOXO
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Eagles.
The Eagle has landed, or in this case three Eagles! Just a quick update on The Lake. It is frozen, I wouldn't risk my neck on it, but it is frozen, although the temperature was up into the 40's for a while today and there are wet areas showing here and there. But the ice is still plenty thick enough to support a lot of birds, and there were a lot of birds out there today, including three Eagles. Yes, three Eagles. Two adult Bald Eagles and one immature Bald Eagle. We were unable to see what the attraction was, they were definitely eating something, but it was too far away to see just what, even with the binoculars. It was small, and that is all we could tell.
There were Seagulls too. Some of those Gulls are huge, almost as big as the Eagles and bigger than our chickens. I must study the bird book and see what kinds of Gull we have here. There were several types today, sizes varied from huge to big to medium.
Harry the Heron put in a showing, gliding across the frozen waste. What does he eat when The Lake is frozen?
Time to go, I said it was a quick update.
There were Seagulls too. Some of those Gulls are huge, almost as big as the Eagles and bigger than our chickens. I must study the bird book and see what kinds of Gull we have here. There were several types today, sizes varied from huge to big to medium.
Harry the Heron put in a showing, gliding across the frozen waste. What does he eat when The Lake is frozen?
Time to go, I said it was a quick update.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Massage.
Don't forget, or if you didn't know, my daughter Sarah is a Massage Therapist. She is trained in Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Massage and a bunch of others I'm sure. She has been doing it for years and has a regular following. She also keeps up with training in new techniques. Many Doctors and Physical Therapists recommend it.
There is nothing quite so relaxing as treating yourself, or a friend or loved one, to a professional massage.
Sarah has Gift Certificates for that special someone who 'has everything'. Here is the perfect gift for the person that is hard to buy for. It is a gift ideal for any occasion - or no occasion, and you can get it with just a phone call. No going out into the cold, driving through the snow, lining up with people who have the flu, or even struggling with ordering "on line". Just pick up the phone and Sarah can send you the certificate in the mail or even e-mail it to you.
Did you forget your loved ones Birthday? Anniversary? One phone call and you can have the perfect gift in your hand in a couple of minutes! They need never know that you forgot! Sarah will never tell them! (And what a great way to say 'Sorry', too!)
Call her at 410-693-0248 or e-mail her at sarahsouders@gmail.com. A one hour massage can cost as little as $55 (Less than a dozen roses because you forgot, plus the cost of the gift that you forgot to get, and you still have to get anyway!)
I guarantee that your friend, relative, business associate or loved one will be happier with this thoughtful gift than with almost any other. (Unless you were planning on giving them a new Lexus or World Cruise of course - were you?)
There is nothing quite so relaxing as treating yourself, or a friend or loved one, to a professional massage.
Sarah has Gift Certificates for that special someone who 'has everything'. Here is the perfect gift for the person that is hard to buy for. It is a gift ideal for any occasion - or no occasion, and you can get it with just a phone call. No going out into the cold, driving through the snow, lining up with people who have the flu, or even struggling with ordering "on line". Just pick up the phone and Sarah can send you the certificate in the mail or even e-mail it to you.
Did you forget your loved ones Birthday? Anniversary? One phone call and you can have the perfect gift in your hand in a couple of minutes! They need never know that you forgot! Sarah will never tell them! (And what a great way to say 'Sorry', too!)
Call her at 410-693-0248 or e-mail her at sarahsouders@gmail.com. A one hour massage can cost as little as $55 (Less than a dozen roses because you forgot, plus the cost of the gift that you forgot to get, and you still have to get anyway!)
I guarantee that your friend, relative, business associate or loved one will be happier with this thoughtful gift than with almost any other. (Unless you were planning on giving them a new Lexus or World Cruise of course - were you?)
Lunar Eclipse
Monday night was cold but clear. The Eclipse was due to start at 1.30 am and sure enough there it was right on time! That is one thing about the Universe and the Stars and the Moon - they keep to their schedules, always on time. Not like wives - or husbands for that matter!
Anyway, I got up and went out onto the deck to observe. One of our cats managed to slip past me out into the cold and kept me company for a while. I took a few pictures and then went back inside again, turned on the computer, and checked out the Lunar Eclipse on line, live! I was able to watch it in the warmth of my own home! How cool is that? But not as cool, in more ways than one, as watching it outside of your own home. It is quite dark here where we live and the sky was completely clear so I had a good view. I did notice that a lot of the 59,000 people who were watching on line said that it was cloudy - in California it was raining heavily. I wonder how many people watched on line, the number that I mentioned was just the site that I was watching, there could have been dozens or even hundreds of sites! And then there were all the people that just got up to see it, live - or real! (So there, 'reality TV', beat that.) I went in and out a few times, took more pictures, let the cat in, she didn't seem to be impressed, and after watching the full Eclipse when the Moon went quite red, returned to bed. Two hours seemed to be enough, even for something that last happened 400 years ago (Yep, that was the last time we had a full Eclipse on the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year) The next time will be another 80 years, I'll probably miss that one! (You never know, it might be cloudy!)
So I got up early today, at about 4.30am and called my parents, it is 5 hours ahead of our time, there in England, they were surprised to hear me. But my father, never at a loss for words told me about how things were delivered by horse drawn carts when he was a boy! He is 91 years old. That story came about when I asked him if they had any more snow - they had another big fall a few days ago. Can you imagine, that is at least two big snowfalls already this year, big enough to close Heathrow Airport twice, and most of Europe too this time, and all before Christmas! I can't remember ever having a white Xmas there, although it does happen very rarely. But the first fall of this season on November 30th has to be some kind of a record, especially as far south as it was. We saw satellite pictures on TV here of the whole of Great Britain snow covered, with the exception of a small part of Southern Ireland.
This enquiry prompted Dad to tell me how he remembered, when he was a boy, they often had snow throughout the winter, sometimes as late as May. They did not have snowploughs - unless they were horse drawn he said! Then he went on to tell me about how the milk and the coal and several other things were delivered by horse drawn carts. How one pony had been scared once and was running down the street scattering bottles of milk everywhere, with the milkman chasing him. Before bottled milk he even remembered the milkman coming to the house with a big "barrel" of milk, called a milk churn, that he would dip the milk out of into pint cans and bring to the door. He also remembered that the horse would move on to the next house that got milk and wait for him there! The horse knew the route and which houses were his customers!
He said they rarely saw cars and he could remember looking down the roads in Wimbledon - a part of London - and seeing no cars. One day there was a car near their house, a Bugatti, that they all gathered around to look at. It belonged to someone in films, a Director? Or a film star? He didn't know, but someone, he thought, who probably made 5 or 10 pounds a week! The average person then made 1 or 2 pounds a week. In fact he said, if you made 2 pounds a week you were "Rolling in Money"!
Well it is time to move on, hope you enjoy my Blog, leave me a message. Bye.
Anyway, I got up and went out onto the deck to observe. One of our cats managed to slip past me out into the cold and kept me company for a while. I took a few pictures and then went back inside again, turned on the computer, and checked out the Lunar Eclipse on line, live! I was able to watch it in the warmth of my own home! How cool is that? But not as cool, in more ways than one, as watching it outside of your own home. It is quite dark here where we live and the sky was completely clear so I had a good view. I did notice that a lot of the 59,000 people who were watching on line said that it was cloudy - in California it was raining heavily. I wonder how many people watched on line, the number that I mentioned was just the site that I was watching, there could have been dozens or even hundreds of sites! And then there were all the people that just got up to see it, live - or real! (So there, 'reality TV', beat that.) I went in and out a few times, took more pictures, let the cat in, she didn't seem to be impressed, and after watching the full Eclipse when the Moon went quite red, returned to bed. Two hours seemed to be enough, even for something that last happened 400 years ago (Yep, that was the last time we had a full Eclipse on the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year) The next time will be another 80 years, I'll probably miss that one! (You never know, it might be cloudy!)
So I got up early today, at about 4.30am and called my parents, it is 5 hours ahead of our time, there in England, they were surprised to hear me. But my father, never at a loss for words told me about how things were delivered by horse drawn carts when he was a boy! He is 91 years old. That story came about when I asked him if they had any more snow - they had another big fall a few days ago. Can you imagine, that is at least two big snowfalls already this year, big enough to close Heathrow Airport twice, and most of Europe too this time, and all before Christmas! I can't remember ever having a white Xmas there, although it does happen very rarely. But the first fall of this season on November 30th has to be some kind of a record, especially as far south as it was. We saw satellite pictures on TV here of the whole of Great Britain snow covered, with the exception of a small part of Southern Ireland.
This enquiry prompted Dad to tell me how he remembered, when he was a boy, they often had snow throughout the winter, sometimes as late as May. They did not have snowploughs - unless they were horse drawn he said! Then he went on to tell me about how the milk and the coal and several other things were delivered by horse drawn carts. How one pony had been scared once and was running down the street scattering bottles of milk everywhere, with the milkman chasing him. Before bottled milk he even remembered the milkman coming to the house with a big "barrel" of milk, called a milk churn, that he would dip the milk out of into pint cans and bring to the door. He also remembered that the horse would move on to the next house that got milk and wait for him there! The horse knew the route and which houses were his customers!
He said they rarely saw cars and he could remember looking down the roads in Wimbledon - a part of London - and seeing no cars. One day there was a car near their house, a Bugatti, that they all gathered around to look at. It belonged to someone in films, a Director? Or a film star? He didn't know, but someone, he thought, who probably made 5 or 10 pounds a week! The average person then made 1 or 2 pounds a week. In fact he said, if you made 2 pounds a week you were "Rolling in Money"!
Well it is time to move on, hope you enjoy my Blog, leave me a message. Bye.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Living on Less.
I went to give an estimate for chimney repairs recently. The customers said that they could not afford the repair because they were broke. A familiar story.
They did not use their chimney/fireplace, but it did need repair. They said that they would think about it and I left.
After I left their house I got to thinking about what I had seen there and decided to do a Blog on 'Living on Less.' Julia and I had been forced to do this when she had been very severely injured in an accident 35 years ago. We were both working at the time so were living quite well. In fact Julia was doing so well in her business that I was thinking of quitting mine and helping in hers.
After her accident we were forced to live a frugal life.
The first thing that I noticed in my customers home was that the heat was set at 75 degrees. It was uncomfortably warm for me because I was used to 68 degrees. They were dressed very lightly in thin t-shirts and shorts. In the driveway was a large SUV.
It occurred to me that many Americans have no idea when it comes to saving money or to frugal living - because they have never had to.
I read the Blog of a lady who espouses Frugal Living. She does a post every day. In case anyone would want to check it out you can take a look at it at www.thefrugalgirl.com
I also have a "Book" that I wrote called "Half". It tells how we lived on half of what our friends lived on. After the accident, that is what we had to do, without Julia's income, and with only me working and having to take care of Julia and our 4 year old daughter, who was also badly hurt in the accident, our income was more than halved. I can e-mail the 'book' to you, if you are interested.
No one has asked me, but in these hard economic times maybe some would be interested in how to save money - from someone who is an old hand at it! Our parents lived through the Second World War in England, where you were forced to live on practically nothing. A lot rubbed off on us and here are some ideas if you really do need to live on less in these hard times.
I should emphasize here that it does involve some sacrifice, you can't spend half of what you are used to spending and live exactly the same as you do now. However I think the sacrifices are minor compared to the savings. You can adjust to suit your circumstances, some may want/need to save only 10% or 20%, others may want or need to save more than 50%, both can be achieved, depending on your habits. I have seen the way some people live and we could live happily on a quarter or even a tenth of what they live on!
Starting with the couple with the chimney that needed work who 'were broke'. Their thermostat was set at 75 degrees. I am sure that was comfortable to them and what they and their two children were used to. They probably had no thought of turning it down, after all 'why should we, that is what we have always had it set at, and what we want it set at.' might have been their reply had I suggested it.
Well I am going to assume that you are different, if you have read this far maybe you are serious about cutting your expenses, unlike our chimney repair friends.
So here goes: - for every degree that you turn your thermostat down you cut your heating bill by 7% . Bet you didn't know that? So if they turn it down from 75 to 68 - still comfortable in my opinion- they will save 7 X 7 = 49% (7 degrees times 7%) In other words, they could cut their heating bill by almost half! We save even more than that, because we also turn it down a couple more degrees at night, and if we are going to be out most of the day. And no, it does NOT cost more to turn the temperature down and then turn it up again. That is a fact. Lets think about that, common sense (Which incidentally is not very common!) will tell you that if you set the thermostat at 60 degrees it will use less power than it will at 70 degrees. At 70 the whole house is warmer and the warmer any object is, the faster it will lose heat. To go to extremes if the outside temp is 30 and your house is 40 it will lose a lot less heat than if it were 90. At 90 the heat would be pouring out everywhere, at 40 it would barely change. In fact your body heat, plus the heat from cooking, lights and the TV might keep it at 40 indefinitely. I don't recommend it, but if needs must, you'd cut your heating bill to just about zero! As I said I don't recommend it.
Our philosophy about heating/cooling the house is - if it is winter, act like winter, wear more clothes. Wear a sweater and you will be comfortable in temperatures 5 or even 10 degrees lower than without one. And the sweater costs almost nothing, you probably have a drawer full of them. And as a bonus, not only are you just as comfortable as if the thermostat is set at 75 but your heating bill is cut in half! How great is that? Just by wearing a sweater. If you REALLY want to cut your costs wear a coat and set it even lower! We don't go that far, but you could if you really needed to. And why heat the whole house when you are in bed? Turn the heat down by a few degrees and throw another blanket onto the bed. If you are going to be out for a few hours cut the thermostat back. You can turn it back up when you return, if it is too cold just keep your coat on until it is comfortable again. More savings, more money in your pocket, instead of the power company's pocket.
In summer, I have been in houses with the A/C set so cold that you want to put on a sweater! (We have been to movie houses where I have gone home to get sweaters to wear while watching the movie. How stupid and wasteful is that?) In summer we wear light clothes and set the thermostat up. Hey it is summer, what is wrong with being warm? Instead of having the thermostat at 75 in winter and 65 in summer, be sensible and do what we do, if you want to cut costs, set it at 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer.
Here's another interesting fact - the average American throws away 25%, to as much as 30%, of the food that he buys! Right away you can see that you could cut your food bill by 25% if you didn't throw away any food! We don't throw away any food. (Don't forget to check out www.thefrugalgirl.com if you want to save on food.) I'm sure most people don't believe that, and don't think that they do. But they do. We accomplish not throwing away any food by the simple expediency of using everything that we buy. This means that we try to not buy more than we need. Julia plans the meals, if there is some left over she puts it in the refrigerator or the freezer for another day. We have food in the freezer and in cans so that if we should "run out" we have food. This saves a lot of money instead of overbuying. My story "Half" goes into more detail but one example is a chicken or a turkey. Many people throw away the carcass after a meal, with "We don't want to keep having the same thing for a week." Or "We don't want leftovers." This is fine, I guess, if you have unlimited money. Here is what happens in the Liddle household. After the initial meal, there is a lot of meat left on the chicken, this meat is taken off of the chicken and used for something different. It could be sliced for sandwiches or it could be cut up for a stew or a curry or ?. But even then it is not finished, the remainder is then cooked for soup or stock. This means the whole carcass, the bones, skin, remaining scraps of meat, everything, goes into a pot to be cooked and then used to make chicken soup or as a base for another soup or to cook rice or something else in. In this way our chicken makes at least three or four and maybe more meals instead of just the one that some people get out of it.
So there with just a couple of tips you have saved up to half off of your heating costs, 25% off of your food costs, and if you continue to apply these 'Cut your Costs' ideas to everything else in your lives you'll be able to save even more. Maybe you'll even be able to reach the goal of 'Half" as we did.
I have dozens or maybe even hundreds more ideas. Many are ways to save a few dollars or even cents, they may not seem worthwhile bothering with, but if you can save a dollar a hundred times! And there are ways that savings can be $10 or $50 each time, multiply that by 100 and see what you get!
They did not use their chimney/fireplace, but it did need repair. They said that they would think about it and I left.
After I left their house I got to thinking about what I had seen there and decided to do a Blog on 'Living on Less.' Julia and I had been forced to do this when she had been very severely injured in an accident 35 years ago. We were both working at the time so were living quite well. In fact Julia was doing so well in her business that I was thinking of quitting mine and helping in hers.
After her accident we were forced to live a frugal life.
The first thing that I noticed in my customers home was that the heat was set at 75 degrees. It was uncomfortably warm for me because I was used to 68 degrees. They were dressed very lightly in thin t-shirts and shorts. In the driveway was a large SUV.
It occurred to me that many Americans have no idea when it comes to saving money or to frugal living - because they have never had to.
I read the Blog of a lady who espouses Frugal Living. She does a post every day. In case anyone would want to check it out you can take a look at it at www.thefrugalgirl.com
I also have a "Book" that I wrote called "Half". It tells how we lived on half of what our friends lived on. After the accident, that is what we had to do, without Julia's income, and with only me working and having to take care of Julia and our 4 year old daughter, who was also badly hurt in the accident, our income was more than halved. I can e-mail the 'book' to you, if you are interested.
No one has asked me, but in these hard economic times maybe some would be interested in how to save money - from someone who is an old hand at it! Our parents lived through the Second World War in England, where you were forced to live on practically nothing. A lot rubbed off on us and here are some ideas if you really do need to live on less in these hard times.
I should emphasize here that it does involve some sacrifice, you can't spend half of what you are used to spending and live exactly the same as you do now. However I think the sacrifices are minor compared to the savings. You can adjust to suit your circumstances, some may want/need to save only 10% or 20%, others may want or need to save more than 50%, both can be achieved, depending on your habits. I have seen the way some people live and we could live happily on a quarter or even a tenth of what they live on!
Starting with the couple with the chimney that needed work who 'were broke'. Their thermostat was set at 75 degrees. I am sure that was comfortable to them and what they and their two children were used to. They probably had no thought of turning it down, after all 'why should we, that is what we have always had it set at, and what we want it set at.' might have been their reply had I suggested it.
Well I am going to assume that you are different, if you have read this far maybe you are serious about cutting your expenses, unlike our chimney repair friends.
So here goes: - for every degree that you turn your thermostat down you cut your heating bill by 7% . Bet you didn't know that? So if they turn it down from 75 to 68 - still comfortable in my opinion- they will save 7 X 7 = 49% (7 degrees times 7%) In other words, they could cut their heating bill by almost half! We save even more than that, because we also turn it down a couple more degrees at night, and if we are going to be out most of the day. And no, it does NOT cost more to turn the temperature down and then turn it up again. That is a fact. Lets think about that, common sense (Which incidentally is not very common!) will tell you that if you set the thermostat at 60 degrees it will use less power than it will at 70 degrees. At 70 the whole house is warmer and the warmer any object is, the faster it will lose heat. To go to extremes if the outside temp is 30 and your house is 40 it will lose a lot less heat than if it were 90. At 90 the heat would be pouring out everywhere, at 40 it would barely change. In fact your body heat, plus the heat from cooking, lights and the TV might keep it at 40 indefinitely. I don't recommend it, but if needs must, you'd cut your heating bill to just about zero! As I said I don't recommend it.
Our philosophy about heating/cooling the house is - if it is winter, act like winter, wear more clothes. Wear a sweater and you will be comfortable in temperatures 5 or even 10 degrees lower than without one. And the sweater costs almost nothing, you probably have a drawer full of them. And as a bonus, not only are you just as comfortable as if the thermostat is set at 75 but your heating bill is cut in half! How great is that? Just by wearing a sweater. If you REALLY want to cut your costs wear a coat and set it even lower! We don't go that far, but you could if you really needed to. And why heat the whole house when you are in bed? Turn the heat down by a few degrees and throw another blanket onto the bed. If you are going to be out for a few hours cut the thermostat back. You can turn it back up when you return, if it is too cold just keep your coat on until it is comfortable again. More savings, more money in your pocket, instead of the power company's pocket.
In summer, I have been in houses with the A/C set so cold that you want to put on a sweater! (We have been to movie houses where I have gone home to get sweaters to wear while watching the movie. How stupid and wasteful is that?) In summer we wear light clothes and set the thermostat up. Hey it is summer, what is wrong with being warm? Instead of having the thermostat at 75 in winter and 65 in summer, be sensible and do what we do, if you want to cut costs, set it at 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer.
Here's another interesting fact - the average American throws away 25%, to as much as 30%, of the food that he buys! Right away you can see that you could cut your food bill by 25% if you didn't throw away any food! We don't throw away any food. (Don't forget to check out www.thefrugalgirl.com if you want to save on food.) I'm sure most people don't believe that, and don't think that they do. But they do. We accomplish not throwing away any food by the simple expediency of using everything that we buy. This means that we try to not buy more than we need. Julia plans the meals, if there is some left over she puts it in the refrigerator or the freezer for another day. We have food in the freezer and in cans so that if we should "run out" we have food. This saves a lot of money instead of overbuying. My story "Half" goes into more detail but one example is a chicken or a turkey. Many people throw away the carcass after a meal, with "We don't want to keep having the same thing for a week." Or "We don't want leftovers." This is fine, I guess, if you have unlimited money. Here is what happens in the Liddle household. After the initial meal, there is a lot of meat left on the chicken, this meat is taken off of the chicken and used for something different. It could be sliced for sandwiches or it could be cut up for a stew or a curry or ?. But even then it is not finished, the remainder is then cooked for soup or stock. This means the whole carcass, the bones, skin, remaining scraps of meat, everything, goes into a pot to be cooked and then used to make chicken soup or as a base for another soup or to cook rice or something else in. In this way our chicken makes at least three or four and maybe more meals instead of just the one that some people get out of it.
So there with just a couple of tips you have saved up to half off of your heating costs, 25% off of your food costs, and if you continue to apply these 'Cut your Costs' ideas to everything else in your lives you'll be able to save even more. Maybe you'll even be able to reach the goal of 'Half" as we did.
I have dozens or maybe even hundreds more ideas. Many are ways to save a few dollars or even cents, they may not seem worthwhile bothering with, but if you can save a dollar a hundred times! And there are ways that savings can be $10 or $50 each time, multiply that by 100 and see what you get!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Third snowfall of the season.
The first "Snowfall" was 14 flakes, approximately, the second as much as a half inch in a few places, but not here, but the third was a doozy. Not real big - just one to two inches - but the ground was very cold from being below freezing for several days, and every flake laid. Plus it is still freezing so what fell, froze as well. On top of that it is the first real fall of the year and we are not used to it. I picked up Bradley and his charming girlfriend Janie this morning from their school. As we left, two snowflakes fell onto the windshield. No more landed until we reached our house when a few more fell. After a while it started in earnest, not real heavy but steady, and by the time they left a few hours later - after completing their "work" of bringing in wood, putting up some decorations and having some lunch, it was about an inch deep. I took them back to Bradley's house and the usual, what I call the four wheel red neck drivers were out in force. As usual the "I have four wheel drive, so I can go fast in this stuff, get out of my way mentality hits them full force." As they tailgate me I am only hoping they are not going to hit us full force. The idea that they can do and go anywhere faster than anyone else can because they have four wheel drive is wrong. Unfortunately they don't know that. It should be written in large print on their windshields. Yes, you can get going better with 4 wheel drive, but you cannot stop any quicker. It is no help at all in steering or stopping. Your vehicle slides just as well in 4 wheel drive as it does in 2 wheel drive, there is no difference at all. Even though I know that, apparently they don't because they are all the time right up on my back bumper pulling out to pass and pulling back in again. My usual response to this idiocy under normal driving conditions is to pull off the road at a safe spot and let them go by before pulling back on and watching them go right up onto the tail of the next car in line, but you can't do that in the snow. So you are stuck with the idiot on your tail and just praying that you don't have to stop while he is changing channels, lighting a cigarette or smacking his girlfriend.
As you can tell, I am not a fan of red necks in big pick up trucks. Or of SUV drivers who think they are high class red necks in SUVs.
The snow continues to fall but we are not expecting any significant amount. Apparently we got lucky this time because it went to the south of us! We just got the northern tip, it seems that VA and N. Carolina got 6 to 8 inches.
As you can tell, I am not a fan of red necks in big pick up trucks. Or of SUV drivers who think they are high class red necks in SUVs.
The snow continues to fall but we are not expecting any significant amount. Apparently we got lucky this time because it went to the south of us! We just got the northern tip, it seems that VA and N. Carolina got 6 to 8 inches.
Julian Asange and Wikileaks.
How controversial can you get?
At first I was mad as hell about him and his stupid sounding company name. The thought of him making money out of doing something that could harm our troops and the country really upset me.
But I have gradually come to realize that what he did was A LOT less bad than what the people that he exposed did. After my initial rage I started to gather facts and that changed my mind completely.
The leaks are a good thing for the American people and the rest of the world, because they can get a clearer picture of what goes on behind closed doors on this planet of ours. (The only one that we have incidentally, and which we seem determined to destroy faster and faster. But lets save that for another Blog!)
What these dopes are doing affects all of us in very dire ways. And, despite their attempts to cloak themselves in dignity, because of their titles, they are, in fact, responsible, all of them, for the desperate geopolitical mess the world has become.
Their strategies have been poorly conceived, selfish, deceitful, and based more in greed than in any semblance of what might be good for the world as a whole. They are fools and thugs and deserve, indeed need, to be exposed. We don't want their type of idiocy representing us to the world.
Despite what they are saying, the real reason the government, et al, is so incensed about Julian Asange is because he has exposed so many of their dirty little secrets. They say of course he has jeopardized our relations with other nations and put people in danger, because that makes them look less self-serving than they really are. It's pure bullshit. The politicians are mad at him for the same reason the bankers are going to be mad at him when their turn comes. (Please let it be soon.) Because he has exposed them, stripped naked, so everyone can see how foolish, incompetent, reckless and self serving they really are. I say to Julian, bravo. And, I say, it is about time we all came to terms with the huge failures of our government and their unholy alliance with the banks and the wall street thieves. If we don't realize what is happening, stand up to them, demand not only their exposure and removal from public office but their incarceration, it will continue to our further detriment, ad infinitum and ad nauseum.
The real power in this country lies, or should lie, with the people. Which is why the bankers and our government prefer to keep the people in the dark. Julian Asange is attempting to remedy that, more power to him, I say. And the powers that be, are pissed, and nervous, about it. As well they should be.
A few words about the danger to our troops from the leaks, after much study, I did not see anything said that damaged our troops or their safety. Fortunately it would appear that, for a change, the news media, with unusual restraint, did not release all of the papers, most importantly any that might have harmed our military men and women. Or perhaps there was something in there about them, the news media?
Don't you love how the same people who lie about the reasons to send our troops into wars around the globe and place them in untenable, unwinnable situations time and time again now claim to be upset about anything that might "Endanger our Troops." I mean could anything Julian Asange do possibly put our troops in any more danger than our government has already placed them in, on totally false premises?
If it were not for Wikileaks we might never have known just what a menace these maniacs are. What our leaders are saying about Wikileaks seems to be coming from a state of panic. Good. It is finally coming home to them just how dumb they were to criticize and poke fun at world leaders who have the power to withdraw their support of us in our wars and with their votes to help the US in its programs around the world.
I might return to 'fine tune' this later when I get the chance. With help from my friend and contributing editor Greg.
At first I was mad as hell about him and his stupid sounding company name. The thought of him making money out of doing something that could harm our troops and the country really upset me.
But I have gradually come to realize that what he did was A LOT less bad than what the people that he exposed did. After my initial rage I started to gather facts and that changed my mind completely.
The leaks are a good thing for the American people and the rest of the world, because they can get a clearer picture of what goes on behind closed doors on this planet of ours. (The only one that we have incidentally, and which we seem determined to destroy faster and faster. But lets save that for another Blog!)
What these dopes are doing affects all of us in very dire ways. And, despite their attempts to cloak themselves in dignity, because of their titles, they are, in fact, responsible, all of them, for the desperate geopolitical mess the world has become.
Their strategies have been poorly conceived, selfish, deceitful, and based more in greed than in any semblance of what might be good for the world as a whole. They are fools and thugs and deserve, indeed need, to be exposed. We don't want their type of idiocy representing us to the world.
Despite what they are saying, the real reason the government, et al, is so incensed about Julian Asange is because he has exposed so many of their dirty little secrets. They say of course he has jeopardized our relations with other nations and put people in danger, because that makes them look less self-serving than they really are. It's pure bullshit. The politicians are mad at him for the same reason the bankers are going to be mad at him when their turn comes. (Please let it be soon.) Because he has exposed them, stripped naked, so everyone can see how foolish, incompetent, reckless and self serving they really are. I say to Julian, bravo. And, I say, it is about time we all came to terms with the huge failures of our government and their unholy alliance with the banks and the wall street thieves. If we don't realize what is happening, stand up to them, demand not only their exposure and removal from public office but their incarceration, it will continue to our further detriment, ad infinitum and ad nauseum.
The real power in this country lies, or should lie, with the people. Which is why the bankers and our government prefer to keep the people in the dark. Julian Asange is attempting to remedy that, more power to him, I say. And the powers that be, are pissed, and nervous, about it. As well they should be.
A few words about the danger to our troops from the leaks, after much study, I did not see anything said that damaged our troops or their safety. Fortunately it would appear that, for a change, the news media, with unusual restraint, did not release all of the papers, most importantly any that might have harmed our military men and women. Or perhaps there was something in there about them, the news media?
Don't you love how the same people who lie about the reasons to send our troops into wars around the globe and place them in untenable, unwinnable situations time and time again now claim to be upset about anything that might "Endanger our Troops." I mean could anything Julian Asange do possibly put our troops in any more danger than our government has already placed them in, on totally false premises?
If it were not for Wikileaks we might never have known just what a menace these maniacs are. What our leaders are saying about Wikileaks seems to be coming from a state of panic. Good. It is finally coming home to them just how dumb they were to criticize and poke fun at world leaders who have the power to withdraw their support of us in our wars and with their votes to help the US in its programs around the world.
I might return to 'fine tune' this later when I get the chance. With help from my friend and contributing editor Greg.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Christmas Party.
I hate to complain, but what is it about Christmas Parties and manners, or any other kind of party, that brings out the thoughtlessness in people? We invited 50 or 60 people to our annual Christmas party, the invitations went out in early December. The party is 4 days away and we have received 6 calls. What to do? Cater for 6? Or for 50? Or somewhere in between? Even people that have sent us Xmas cards did not say if they were coming or not! What is the etiquette here, on our side? Should we call or write again to ask if they will be coming or not? It is the same problem every year. We usually end up with about half the number come that we invited - but we never know who to expect! Oh, and we only get return invites from those 6 who have replied!
Xmas! Someone, I won't say who, said they are going to convert to Islam before next year. As he said, "Thirty days of not eating until after sunset has got to be better than 4 days of decorating the house." And sometimes I think of paraphrasing that thought on arranging a Christmas Party! But I won't, the end result is usually worth it. Every one has fun, and it is great to meet up with people that we only see a few times or even only once a year.
Xmas! Someone, I won't say who, said they are going to convert to Islam before next year. As he said, "Thirty days of not eating until after sunset has got to be better than 4 days of decorating the house." And sometimes I think of paraphrasing that thought on arranging a Christmas Party! But I won't, the end result is usually worth it. Every one has fun, and it is great to meet up with people that we only see a few times or even only once a year.
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