The Whinging Geezer

Palin has referred to her teenage daughter’s pregnancy as a normal “up and down” of family life. ”Up and down” of family life is children’s illness, job loss, failing grades and divorce. Not the pregnancy of your underage, unmarried, still in high school daughter. This is an example of why the teaching of abstinence-only in schools does not work. I’m sure Bristol is a very nice young lady. But by not teaching her about the birds and the bees, her mother did her a disservice. It’s great that the love birds are going to get married, but she’s still pregnant out of wedlock. This is not the actions of a normal person.

She claims to be just a soccer mom and she and her family are just like “Joe Six-pack”. Well, Joe Six-pack doesn’t have a net worth of over two million dollars. Joe Six-pack doesn’t make $125,000 a year. Who is she kidding? And the way she talks? Sarah Palin never met a dropped gerund she didn’t like, you betchya. If McCain gets elected, this woman will be a heartbeat away from the most important, most respected and most powerful job in the free world. At least it was until Dubya got ahold of it, you betchya.

Filed under: politics | Tagged: Bristol, McCain, Palin, Sarah Palin, trailer trash | No Comments »

With the economy reeling and your personal finances in upheaval, now is a good time to step back and take a good look at what you can do to get yourself back on the road to recovery. These are simple in concept but will be difficult to act upon unless you are willing to make a commitment to yourself. Your government isn’t going to bail you out personally. You’re going to have to suck it up and do this yourself. Take one step at a time and make sure you’re comfortable with it before moving on to the next step. Go slowly and  you will soon see results.  

Step One: Learn to control your spending
Assuming that you don’t have a way to significantly increase your income, the way to start fresh is by controlling the way you spend your money. You need to spend less than you make. By spending less you are making sure you have a little extra money each month for those “just in case” emergencies. The little extra that you have goes straight into saving. If you are able to do this, your life after bankruptcy will be successful.

Step Two: Learn to live within a budget
Once you get your spending under control, the next step is to create a budget for yourself with the money you make each month. The word “budget” may have some negative association for you. Living within a budget may seem restricting and this may not be the life you would like to have for yourself. But the truth is, living within a budget will eventually give you the freedom to do what you want with your money. Thus, a budget can actually keep you focused on where your money is coming from and where it’s going. Don’t think of a budget as a way to deny yourself things; think of it as a way to empower yourself to make intelligent financial decisions.

Step Three: Start a saving plan
There is a famous saying that goes “Always pay yourself first”. This is very important to remember when it comes to saving. You may think that you don’t even have any money to pay your bills each month let alone to put money aside for a savings plan. But it is very important to realize that even the few dollars that you may put away each week can add up to an enormous sum 10-20 years down the line.

These are three simple steps and I’m sure everyone knows them, but now is the time to take them to heart and act upon them. They will work. Trust me, I’m not from the government.

Filed under: finance | Tagged: debt, economy, savings | No Comments »

Ronald Regan (a Republican) once railed against legislation that would ultimately guarantee health care for older Americans; the program now known as Medicare. Since then, conservative Republicans still hate Medicare and would kill it if they could. They tried to do that during the Clinton years, but so far, have been unable to pull it off.

Now, John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of non-elderly Americans instead. I repeat, John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of non elderly Americans instead. That’s you and me, America.

Most Americans under 65 currently get health insurance through their employers, if it’s available. It’s available because the tax code favors such insurance. Your employer’s portion of the insurance is tax deductible as long as the plan follows certain rules. Here’s the catch: the plan has to be available to all employees regardless of the state of their health or the size of their paycheck. Everyone in the plan is equal. Get it?

This system works pretty well when it’s available. However, not all employers offer health benefits so it leaves many Americans out in the cold. They’re forced to search for private insurance, often without any luck in finding it. Here’s the catch: insurance companies offering private coverage refuse to enroll anyone with a pre-existing medical condition and when they do, the costs are prohibitive because insurance companies pend great sums weeding out high risk applicants - the ones who actually might need this insurance. 

So what do the candidates want to do? Barack Obama offers us incremental reform. He wants to regulate insurers to prevent discrimination against the less-healthy, subsidies to help low-income families buy insurance, and public insurance plans to compete with the private sector. This is not universal coverage, like the Republicans claim -  it falls way short, but it would sharply reduce the number of uninsured Americans in this, our country.

McCain, on the other hand, wants to destroy the current system by eliminating the tax break for employer-sponsored health plans, and he doesn’t, I repeat, does not, offer any alternative. Without that tax break, many US employers will drop their current health insurance plans and up to 20 million workers currently covered will lose their employer-sponsored health plans.

Oh, wait, McCain does have a plan - sort of. He’ll give everyone a tax credit of $2500 for individuals and $5000 for families that can be used to purchase private health coverage. At the same time, McCain will deregulate insurance - leaving companies fee to deny coverage to those with health problems. His proposal for a “high-risk pool” for hard cases would provide little help. 

In the end, more people would buy individual insurance - because they had to - no more employer-sponsored coverage. The total number of uninsured Americans might decline slightly under McCain, but many more Americans would be without insurance than under Obama. Got that? More Americans would be uninsured under McCain.

However, under McCain, the people gaining insurance would be those who need it the least: relatively healthy Americans with high incomes. This is because insurance companies want to cover only healthy people, and even among the healthy only those able to pay a lot more than their $5000 credit will be able to afford coverage after deregulation drive the insurance rates sky-high and only the wealthy will be able to afford coverage (remember, the $5000 credit will only cover a portion of the more than $12,000 the average family will be paying.

And in the process on cushioning the wealthy and banging on the middleclass, the McCain plan will add another layer of expensive bureaucracy to an already over-burdened government. Purveyors of private coverage already spend 29% of the premiums they receive on administration, only because they employ so many people to screen the applicants. This compares to 12% for group plans and 3% for Medicare.

The bottom line is: the McCain plan makes no sense at all, unless you believe in the miracle of the philosopher’s stone: changing lead into gold. Apparently McCain does: he published an article under his name stating thet “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade  in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation”. Mr. McCain, just what have you been smoking?  The McCain plan will do for health care what deregulation has done for banking.

Filed under: economics, politics | Tagged: banking, deregulation, health care, insurance, John McCain | No Comments »

Perhaps you are like me and you are tired of hearing everyone give you advice about time. They just go on and on. Like, hope you can find some time. On the other hand, do not forget to make yourself some time. How about, do not lose any time. Alternatively, do not waste time. In addition, my all time favorite is, be sure to use time wisely. If I hear just one more I am sure, I will lose it!

Now, they may all be sound advice but what I really want to hear just once is, how about some playtime. That kind of time I do deserve. You and I can actually accomplish far more if we just learn to devote time for ourselves. Doing this, though, is not always so easy.

We should all work very hard and when we do, we are bound to struggle through the pressures of life. It just makes sense. You are likely among those who are often found trying to get ahead and meet the demands of your job or family, right? Yet, if we do not stop and give ourselves the attention we need, we will all end up suffering to one degree or another. Keep in mind that there is no one right way to manage this. Everyone has variable circumstances. We all have some unique problems in doing or achieving this aim. Perhaps the first thing to realize is that you are not managing time to do this. You are managing yourself.

A well-managed individual is well organized.

In order to manage yourself, establish your priorities. I am not talking about those “most important” things to do. It is prioritizing those things that are most important to you at a personal level. In focusing less on the tangible and more on the fulfillment of things you value, you will then achieve a sense of balance. You just need to determine what those activities are.

Take a look at what your leisure desires are. Travel? Reading? Bowling? Dancing? Dining out more? Visiting with family and friends? Deciding what you want to do is the first step to finding the time to do it. Your priorities can therefore encompass: Friends and family relations, personal enrichment, health and wellness, pursuing personal passions, and working toward long-range goals. Life is more fulfilling when you are doing those things because they bring you joy. You do not need to sacrifice career, family, and well being to achieve balance in your life. You do not even need to change jobs either. Just change yourself. That should be priority number one.

You can create your own brand in lifestyle. It is not something created for you, I know you might think that others control your life, and that you are not in control, but that just is not true. You have many different choices. Part of the choices that you will make has to do with doing those things that align with your purpose or spirit. You can opt to take any task and turn it into a purposeful one, giving it importance and meaning. If you do it any other way, it is just a chore. The way you view your activities has a great deal of impact on how you approach them.

Filed under: Self Help and Motivational | Tagged: time managment | No Comments »

I wasn’t very impressed with last night’s Vice Presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin. Biden was his usual confident self. With more than thiry-five successful years in the Senate, what else would he be. Palin did not appear as confident, but DID appear to be well-rehearsed. Of the answers to the questions she didn’t duck, they seemed full of platitudes and cute folksy phrases: “Joe six-pack”, “Main Street America” and “You betcha” poured from her lips even when they bore no relation to the questions that the moderator asked.  It appears that many of her answers were rehearsed and repeated by rote no matter what the question was. However, what almost made me throw a brick through my TV screen was the fact that if a question came up and she realized she didn’t know how to answer, to just start talking about energy policy or taxes. This is how she avoided another disaster like her Katie Couric interviews. On the other hand, it created another disaster in as much that it doesn’t work. You might as well hang a sign around your neck that says “I am an idiot”. Even a talking parrot replies with what appears to be an intelligent answer every once in awhile.

When you’re President and the times get difficult, 

you don’t get to change the subject

Filed under: politics | Tagged: debate, Sarah Palin, Vice president | 1 Comment »