A Health Lesson from Oz

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a leading cardio surgeon and heart doctor in this country, was a guest on Oprah the other day—and it was an enlightening experience indeed!

Yes, I actually sat through an Oprah show because he was on, and he wasn’t her typical ordinary run-of-the-mill guest. This was a well-known doctor, and he had lots to say about coronary artery disease, heart disease, plaque, hard arteries, and the like. He even brought things for show-and-tell, such as hearts in various stages of health and decay, along with arteries, livers, new heart imaging technology, and showed an organ that didn’t look like an organ at all—it looked more like a stretched blob of fibrous fat.

“This is the organ responsible for obesity,” he said. I was all ears, ready with the notepad. Then a commercial break came. When they returned, he held it up, stretched it out, and told us it was called the OMENTUM, and it was responsible for fat storage in the abdomen. Naturally, I hit Google when all was said and done.

After perusing a definition (http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/omentum)
and some pictures (http://www.netterimages.com/image/detail.htm?variantID=1475),
(http://www.netterimages.com/image/detail.htm?variantID=3084), and putting together the information I already had on good and bad fats, I deduced that this organ (actually two halves of an organ) is where obesity takes place. It’s also the starting place for several fat-related diseases. The omentum is susceptible to cancer, according to my mother-in-law’s old health record information—she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2002, and she had a radical hysterectomy, appendectomy, and partial omentumectomy to try to remove some of her cancer. She lost her battle in 2004.

This, at least in part, explains why some cancer victims experience a sudden, unexplained weight loss—a telltale sign of cancer somewhere in the body. Cancer feeds on sugars, and fat gets released (and converted to sugars) to provide a source of energy, keeping the body (and unfortunately, the cancer) alive.

By adhering to a “good fats” diet, you are cleaning out your omentum of excess fats that are deleterious to your health. An overstuffed omentum leads to heart and vascular ailments of all sorts, not to mention triglyceride problems (fat in the blood), and eventual liver and kidney woes from trying to filter all this junk out of your body.

During liposuction, the omentum gets melted and sucked away, and people pay good money for this! Thank God it grows back, and that’s your second chance to take better care of it—or you can start now by incorporating good fats and exercise into your life.

So take a cue from Oprah and Oz—keep up your momentum to care for your omentum, and consume only good fats. Your abdomen will thank you for it, and so will the mirror.

My “good fats” article: http://wenchwisdom.blogspot.com/2006/03/two-sides-of-malnourishment-l-o-n-g.html

Boomers Failing to Thrive in Retirement Savings (L-O-N-G)

A recent news item says that Boomers are NOT taking advantage of available “catch-up” provisions in IRA and 401(k) plans.

The catch-up provisions (as of 2006) amount to an extra $1000/year for IRAs and $5000/year for 401(k) plans, beginning at age 50. This amounts to an extra $5000 for IRAs and $25,000 for 401(k)’s that could be working for them as they await retirement—the earliest draw being possible at age 55. This is on top of the boost in regular annual contributions that went into effect this year.

Those are also extra dollars that could be sheltered from taxes. So why aren’t they taking advantage of it?

Possible reasons: it’s unnecessary, massive debt, or a resignation to work until they drop (to avoid boredom, maybe? God knows they won’t be avoiding taxes). I’m pinning my bets on the ‘riding mower set” up to their eyeballs in debt.

Boomers, or Bobos (from the book “Bobos in Paradise”) either want to continue their current consumption level beyond retirement age, or simply do not want to cut back to better fit into the economic realities of their retirement balances.

Whatever the reasons, it’s a shame most of them aren’t taking advantage of the extra savings allowances, even if it’s only to shelter money from taxes. It’s also a shame that those thrown away benefits can’t be handed down to someone who could really use them, like young savers.

I have a Boomer-era sister who was raised in a pension-and-benefit working environment, and as a result, never got the chance to take part in a 401(k) plan, and thought she’d never have need of an IRA…then one day, she sat down with a pension advisor to talk about her impending retirement, and the load of bricks fell on her. After 30 years of civil service work, she discovered that day that her pension, plus Social Security, minus the taxes on it all, wouldn’t yield her nearly enough to carry on her current lifestyle. She told me that she was going to have to get a job somewhere just to cover her expenses—at nearly 60. Who did she think was going to hire her at that age, and with no other experience than bureaucratic paper-pushing? Then, there’d be the expectations on both sides of the employment contract—boy, would she be in for a big shock!

I suggested she pay off all possible debt NOW while she still had a decent income to do it with—the credit cards, the vehicles, everything but the mortgage. “I can’t afford it!” she replied. “I can’t afford to retire at all. I’ll have to work while receiving a pension AND Social Security!”

I read that e-mail and immediately grabbed my head with both hands. Having just recently dealt with my father-in-law’s estate and pension/Social Security/whole life policy tax woes, I knew what Sis was in for—no matter where her income was coming from, it was ALL going to be taxable, and at Boomer rates (this is code for AMT). This meant that she worked, and is going to continue to work, to pay taxes and not bring much home. Her working into retirement is only going to make a bad situation worse, what with the hour/pay limitations of Social Security being what they are.

I told her to pay off what she could, sell off what she could, and look into buying some investment property—just one to start. I then went into a long litany about the tax structure, passive income and capital gains vs. ordinary income, and I found myself completely mystified as to why I was explaining all this to a woman 15 years my senior.

Her next question was about how the Social Security system worked, and how she could find out how much her “account” held in it. After laughing uproariously, I wrote her as to how there is no “account” per se, that it’s all just one more check Uncle Sam has to write each month, that she should study those statements she gets annually from the Social Security department, and that she should RUN, not walk, to the nearest library, plant herself in the 332 Dewey decimal system section, and start checking out titles.

I then began to wonder if ALL Boomers were as financially stupid as my own sister. All those financial planning commercials on TV make them seem like they’re a relatively savvy bunch when it comes to money, seeing as how some of them actually work in the financial industry. I guess they learned quickly how to SPEND it, but not so well at how to SAVE it.

Depression-era parents scrimped and saved just so Boomers could spend it on Martha Stewart merchandise, Hummer vehicles, RIM Blackberries, and McMansions in suburbia—complete with those riding mowers on which they can ride around and proclaim their debt levels as they mow. Estate liquidators are going to be very busy in the near future and for decades to come, as Gen-X and Y (Boomer children) do their best to shuck off the excess crap left to them by their all-consuming locust-like parents. Unfortunately, the whole cycle will inevitably repeat itself as Gen AA (or whatever the proper designation is for Gen-X and Y’s kids) becomes a whole new crop of human locusts (and $3/gallon gas becomes the norm).

Who knows—if my sister is any indication, then a huge chunk of graying and balding population is headed for big trouble, and dragging the rest of us down with it. As things usually go, the rest of us will in some way or other end up paying for the ineptitude of Boomers and Uncle Sam in trying to deal with their retirement.

Expect higher taxes, lower services, and greatly diminished results as the leftover residue of the Boomer passage through life into death. They are the generation that will be handing their children (and us) a world that is worse off than the one they lived in. As one gangster TV character on trial said: “Ours is the generation that made money, and theirs is the generation that throws it away.” Sheesh, what an epitaph!

All this and more for a lousy $1000 extra per year—$83 and change per month—and it will cost us much more than that to make up for their lost opportunity. What I couldn’t do with an extra $1000 -$5000 per year just in sheltering possibilities! What would be income shelter for me is mere gas money for them.

Working Women Are Finding Their Limits (L-O-N-G-ish)

No more will you see cute blondes in skirts and blazers singing, “Working 9 to 5” while dancing a choreographed Broadway step sequence, with nary a hair out of place.

More and more working women are becoming FORMERLY working women, and the reason is time. Time just isn’t what it used to be.

Women spent so much time standing up and shouting for equality, recognition, and acceptance, that it’s all coming home to roost as a social experiment gone wrong. Remember Gloria Steinem and the bra-burning campaigns? Remember all those women’s marches with babies in strollers and huge banners across the fronts of the crowds? Remember the birth of such organizations as NOW and NARAL? Remember Bella Abzug? Go Google “the women’s movement” sometime if none of this rings any bells.

The tide is turning back to where it was in the 50’s. Hard-won rights are being cast aside as women everywhere, and in all walks of life, come to the conclusion that it’s physically impossible to “bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never let you forget you’re a man” with only 24 hours in a day.

If all we had to do was work, eat, sleep, and mate, we’d have it made!

The reality is this: we’re now responsible for the outcomes of our children’s education, our own financial lives (including retirement), our own healthcare and medical lives, ever-changing corporate lives, political lives, spiritual lives, sexual lives, AND the damned bacon! As you can see, something’s got to give. There isn’t a purse big enough to carry this load!

Men have the same set of problems, and the same 24 hours to accomplish it all in, but for some reason, society finds it more acceptable if the woman steps out of the working world than the man--I suppose it could be for the money, since our “gender discount” can knock us down by as much as 25%, depending on occupation field. Some still feel that a woman’s place is in the home, chained to the stove, barefoot and pregnant, wearing nothing but an apron to protect her from flying bacon grease.

More and more of us are choosing to walk away from working, and I congratulate you all—now you have more time to concentrate on what’s really important. Making some faceless corporation’s priorities your own seems absurd, but that’s the price we pay for working for someone else.

Back to the “freedom party”—now, with a little luck, we shall see a decline in the number of financial defaults, the amount of credit card debt, and the amount of tax money collected for Congress to misappropriate. Now we can pursue what our personal biology has intended for us all along—to do what we do best, and that’s to run (or help run) the show.

Dolly, your dance is over. Now you can go back to the ranch and relax a little. By the way, do you remember why you went to battle and fought so hard in the first place? I remember why: someone told us we couldn’t do it. Someone told us NO, and we showed them.

Now the burden has been doubled and tripled—so much so that leaving the workforce to concentrate on what matters is happening in droves. But women aren’t necessarily stepping back into long-rusted stove shackles and strangling themselves with apron strings—instead, they are coming home to tend to Family, Inc.—better known as THE BUSINESS OF LIVING. When you think about it, the life’s the same, but the work environment is much less harsh: no dress code, no fixed hours, no commuting, no payroll taxes, no worries about “corporate appearance”, no glass ceiling, and your priorities are your own. Other side benefits include a whole lot less interruptions in your day with no jangling phone, no beeper, no cell phone, and no office e-mail—and no income to generate more taxes and expenses for you.

Welcome home, Dolly. Now you have more time to devote to your children’s education, your children themselves, your family’s financial life, medical life, and spiritual life; your own sex life and political life, and you can even deal with the bacon! All this time cost you was money—money which you had all along if you only looked. Let Mr. Dolly have his load back now, and let’s get you started on how to make this new gig work.

Your mission, Dolly: if you aren’t familiar with frugal living, get familiar with it. Go to Google and immerse yourself in it. This and OJT are the only training you’ll receive for working at Family, Inc. I’d also advise you to learn the tax code (or at least keep abreast of the relevant portions)—that’s where your money is. I guarantee you won’t miss the stress of your former life.

Good luck with your newfound freedom. Stay-at-home wives have enjoyed it for years.

Let’s Play the Bird Flu Strategy Game!

You had to know this was coming. The hype and resurgence from all channels, including the Weather Channel, says that we can expect to be hip deep in dead birds starting this summer—just as migratory birds make their way down from Alaska and Canada. The peak migration time will be this August.

Financial people “in the know” are telling us to stock up on foodstuffs to avoid having to go out, and to invest in healthcare stocks and biomedical firms engaged in Bird Flu research and vaccine development.

I have a better plan.

While reckless herds of sheep are diving into these “recommendations,” I plan on buying up stocks of leading meat manufacturers NOW before the crisis actually hits.

Why, you may ask? It’s simple—demand will be sparked for hoarding all kinds of poultry products, clearing off shelves and freezer sections, followed by a raid on OTHER meats (what else will be available by then?), forcing the prices of ALL edible meats to skyrocket.

If you’re like me and eat organic meat, you’d better begin laying in a supply NOW, because organically-raised birds are going to succumb to this flu before sheltered-and-inoculated birds will. Demand will then shift to the remaining stocks of organic meats, which will also run low in spite of skyrocketing prices. This flu may spell the demise of organic poultry for a few years afterward until stocks can be adequately replenished, and it may create more vegetarians before all is said and done.

I imagine foods of all sorts will be hoarded, and then become scarce and pricey as the flu becomes continent-wide, but there are whole warehouses full of the stuff to make investment in companies like ADM or ConAgra a mediocre scenario at best. Only if we become restricted to the indoors will these two conglomerates become a worthwhile part of the strategy, along with internet grocery companies and delivery services.

The Bird Flu makes me wish there was some sort of a meat index. I hate having to buy individual stocks, but I see no other way to take advantage of this occurrence.

Some company names that are now in my freezer and soon to be in my portfolio, provided they offer stock:

• Blackwing Meats (ostrich, buffalo)
• Organic Valley (pork, beef, chicken)
• Coleman Meats (chicken)
• Shelton Poultry (turkey)
• Grateful Harvest (beef)

You might want to search the internet or Nasdaq to find other companies who sell organic meats, organic eggs (if the chickens die, where will the eggs come from?), or even commercially-raised poultry and eggs, such as Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue, and other meat sources, such as Smithfield (pork), beef producers, etc.—and don’t forget about those eggs!

In China, KFC had to ditch the chicken and serve fried fish—another clue for playing this disease, because it may happen here as well.

As for betting on beleaguered vegetarians, I wouldn’t bother with it—since produce comes from all over the planet, it’s highly unlikely that there’d be any shortage unless we’re all driven indoors by this thing. I guess our “Homeland Security anti-terrorism kits” (the plastic sheets and duct tape Rumsfeld told us all to buy) may finally come in handy.

Tell me—do YOU foresee a tofu shortage coming out of all this? I certainly don’t. Nuts and beans, maybe (if this thing hangs around long enough), but not tofu.

Put some MEAT (and eggs) into your portfolio this Bird Flu season!

Don’t Take This with a Grain of Salt (Really L-O-N-G)

We have a “new” 500 to be aware of, and it has nothing at all to do with racing. This has to do with salt intake.

The wool has been pulled over our eyes yet again with nutritional advice beaten into us like a drum—the typical recommendation of 2350 mg. salt per day, you know, the 1 teaspoon allowance that we all exceed regularly without even realizing it.

Well, come to find out, that magic number is the MAXIMUM limit for sodium intake per day. You can easily exceed that by having a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat bread, unless you’re reading your labels as you shop.

Nutritionists, like the one I encountered at the VA, will tell you that the magic 2350 number is necessary for the body to stabilize electrolytes, and they’re dead wrong by almost 1850.

The absolute MINIMUM to stabilize electrolytes (and this is all you need salt for anyway) is 500 mg. per day for adults (even less for infants and children). If you aren’t checking labels for sodium content as you shop, I suggest you start now. In fact, go through your kitchen and check out how much sodium you have already brought into your home in the name of cost consciousness. Start with your bread and cheese—you’ll be stunned, I guarantee.

When the shock wears off, make a note to hunt down lower (MUCH lower) sodium versions of the same foods you buy. I’ll save you some time and tell you that you won’t find much, except in health food stores. I’ve been scouting for about 4 years, and it isn’t getting any easier—having to keep track of fat, high fructose corn syrup, additives, preservatives, and now sodium is very tiring to say the least. Health food stores take lots of pressure off me for these contents, because very few of them can be found.

Now even health food stores won’t have alternatives to all the things you regularly consume, and that’s when your frugal bone should kick in—a lot of times, it’s easier to make your own than to buy commercially, especially in the bread department. Don’t get me wrong here—low sodium breads DO exist, but most of them taste like crap!

Since I personally lack the counter space for a bread maker OR simple dough-rolling, my alternative was to ditch the bread entirely. I use Manischewitz no-salt crackers (in the Jewish foods section), homemade tortilla chips, and homemade crepes (as wraps) instead.

As I shop, I use the number 100 as my guide—anything under 100 mg. of sodium per serving gets put in the cart.

After having experience in the low sodium arena, I went and bought a loaf of bread from my formerly-favorite bakery outlet. The bread was so salty that I couldn’t even finish one slice! I ground it all into crumbs and fed the birds with it.

Why didn’t I taste all this salt when I was buying this bread regularly? Well, because I was de-sensitized to it because I was buying it regularly. My head spun as I thought about all the foods I was de-sensitized to, and all the foods I couldn’t do anything about, such as restaurant and drive-thru meals. Needless to say, Momma here eats at home and nowhere else.

The frugal way to deal with this dilemma is to take control of the ingredients by making things yourself whenever possible. The next best way is to start shopping at health food stores, stocking up when favored items go on sale (most health food stores will give discounts for case quantity—ask the staff first). If you receive WIC or food stamps, ask to see if the health food stores take the vouchers or cards before ordering (again, most do, but ask first to be sure).

If you’d like a list of what the Wench purchases with lowest sodium in mind, just leave me a comment requesting so. I’ll warn you now that some of this stuff isn’t cheap like the regular salt-loaded versions, but my health is THAT important to me—I want to be around long enough to corrupt your grandkids through this blog!

Here’s a list of foods generally low in sodium as a rule of thumb, so you won’t have to worry about running out to replace them anytime soon:

• Yellow mustard
• Water chestnuts
• Bamboo shoots
• Some brands of canned bean sprouts (check the label)
• Corn tortillas
• Lite Swiss cheeses, such as Jarlsberg and Emmentaler (look for in Sam’s Clubs)
• All types of Eden canned beans as long as the label says “no salt added”

Even if you hunt down and use the absolute lowest-sodium products, you’ll still wind up consuming about 600-750 mg. of sodium per day, but that’s a hell of a lot better for you than your old consumption level.

Note about potassium offsets: if you consume something with 100 mg. or more of sodium, be aware of the potassium levels—a 3:1 ratio of potassium-to-sodium levels is ideal for potassium offset. You’ll find this information quite useful when shopping for juices and other beverages—I find that Lakewood and Knudsen brands (in health food stores) are most beneficial to me in this regard. Some of the juices and drinks have sodium, but sufficient potassium to offset it. As long as a product has three times (or more) potassium content than sodium content, it’s okay to consume.

Note about food label terminology: look for the words “no salt,” “no added salt,” or “very low sodium” when shopping, and be sure to check the back nutritional label to verify—the government’s interpretation of low sodium is different from ours. According to the government, the term “low salt” means 140 mg. of sodium, and this is too much unless there’s an adequate potassium offset. Don’t trust the government on this one—read those labels and make sure before buying.

I’ll leave you with a list of foods to avoid like the plague:

• Worcestershire

• Soy sauce

• Seaweeds of all kinds

• Flour tortillas (unless homemade using sodium control)

• Anything in brine (pickles, olives, sauerkraut, jalapenos, etc.)

• Anything pre-marinated (packaged meats, olives, vegetables, etc.)

• Anything cured or processed (hams, sausage, jerky, bacon, etc.)

• Cheddar-based cheeses (longhorn, Colby, jack, etc.)

• Anything pre-basted (turkeys, chickens, pork loins, etc.—read labels!)

• Most cold cereals (no sodium versions are found in health food stores)

• Chinese greens (Napa cabbage, bok choy, tat soy, etc.)—they pull salt out of the soil and into their tissue

• Celery, chard, beet greens—they also pull salt out of the soil and into the stalks and leaves

• Celtic salt/sea salt—sodium is sodium is sodium, and there is no such thing as a low-sodium salt, unless it is a potassium-based salt substitute

• Processed foods from a regular grocery store (check the labels on that cake mix or Hamburger Helper just for laughs—you won’t laugh long!)

• Most canned fish (health food stores offer plenty of very low sodium varieties)

• Any instant noodle dish, such as Cup O’ Noodles or Top Ramen—this stuff is instant suicide!

Here are some links for you to see the sodium level recommendations for yourself:

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/sodium/faq.html

http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nutrition/factsheets/sodium.html

http://nutritionservices.upmc.com/NutritionArticles/Vitamins/Sodium.htm

Happy anti-salt mining!

The Two Sides of Malnourishment (L-O-N-G)

This is going to slay you.

The U. N. wants obesity to be declared a symptom of malnourishment, and they have a point.

Just as the usual stereotypical image of malnourishment includes hunger and starvation, it should also include obesity, and for a few reasons:

• Too many calories due to unrestrictive portion control (what the health community refers to as “calorie poisoning”)

• Poor food choices

• Eating too often for the exertion level

• Eating to gain comfort, or other psychological reasons

What doesn’t help the situation is that the public isn’t widely aware of how they’re poisoning themselves using government-sponsored information about fats. It doesn’t help that the truth about fats is being smothered by a wave of counter-information, all in an effort to keep us from learning the bigger picture—Uncle Sam and his agency minions don’t want to have to pay you in retirement, or pay for your emergency room care.

The more we continue to poison ourselves with this “politically correct” food and nutrition information, the quicker Uncle Sam reaches his goal of zero Social Security checks and Medicare reliance. HMOs would benefit here, as would the funeral industry.

To knock over the Food guide Pyramid, and especially the small triangle at the top labeled FATS, we must look into what constitutes a “good” and “bad” fat, and this, too is going to slay you—look into something called SHORT CHAIN FATTY ACIDS and MEDIUM CHAIN FATTY ACIDS. These fats break down in the digestive tract right away for the body to use immediately for energy, and consist of full-fat dairy, fermented dairy (yogurts, kefir, buttermilk, etc.), nut fats (especially from macadamias and walnuts), and coconut products (milk, shredded coconut, and oil).

Other fats, such as meat fat, canola or rapeseed oils, and soy oils are LONG CHAIN or EXTRA LONG CHAIN FATTY ACIDS, which take longer to break down in your system. Because of the time and effort it takes to break them down into usable bits, your body tends to store these away for a rainy day, and of course, this is America—it never rains here for fat depletion, hence, the obesity epidemic. Think of it as “body clutter.”

Basic rule of thumb: the longer the fatty acid chain, the worse the fat is for you in terms of storing it on your body. This and this alone is responsible for obesity in this country, and look what we’re being told over and over again about which fats are the right ones to use!

The correct fats in a nutshell:

• Short- and medium-chain fatty acids

• Walnuts, fish for their Omega-3 content

• Olives, because they contain Omega-9, which acts like an Omega-3 in the body

The fats to avoid in a nutshell:

• Canola, rapeseed, soy, and any other type of “seed” oil (flax oil falls in here, but the whole flax seed is beneficial to us as fiber)

• Meat fat, lard, vegetable oils/fats

• Any other type of long-or extra-long chain fatty acid

Good fats safe for cooking, baking, and frying:

• Coconut oil for high temperatures

• Refined nut oils, such as walnut, for medium-high temperatures

Good fats NOT safe for frying:

• Olive oil—use as a low-temp oil only for salads and dressings

No more worrying about saturated, unsaturated, and polyunsaturated--we can't keep them straight anyway. We weren't meant to--this was part of the whole nutrition confusion game.

Is it any wonder we have an epidemic of obesity on our hands? With the current state of our Social Security program, you’d think the government would want us all to live to be 100 or more, so we can continue working and contributing!

Ask yourself how long we have been wandering the earth deluged in the misinformation about fats sodium, sugars, and any other chunk of nutritional knowledge, and why this truth isn’t being more widely disseminated. I suppose it’s like the patent to no-run pantyhose: someone’s sitting on it because it would put big businesses out of business, namely Sara Lee (current owner of Leggs) and Hanes. The patent does exist, because the patent office tells us so, but someone bought it and squirreled it away—again, we’re being denied the truth about something as minor to our lives as pantyhose. Denial of truth about fats is a bigger deal, because it’s our lives at stake here.

Our bodies are starving for some proper foods, and it’s high time we started feeding them correctly. Seeds and grains are animal feed--not fit for humans.

Wenchypoo’s advice: take a handful of walnuts and some shredded coconut, stir them into your favorite full-fat yogurt, begin snacking, and call me in the morning when you begin to feel skinnier. Stay tuned for the truth about sodium and the REAL recommended sodium levels—you might also want to check out the research of Mary Enig and Sally Fallon while you’re waiting.

Choice versus Privacy Invasion

Too many shadows, whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when, why, what?
How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
And which do you choose--a hard or soft option?
(How much do you need?)

Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”
_______________________________________________________

Sounds all too familiar, huh?

It was an apt description, and an apt warning of, the all-consuming 80’s and the yet-to-be 90’s and 2000’s. I fear for the 2010’s, when I imagine advertising and marketing will be plugged into every aspect of our lives—right up to a monitoring toilet seat.

It’s bad enough that tax prep chains and accountants want to sell your financial information for the sake of retirement fund solicitation, and possibly a hefty (for the industry) fee per name sold down the road. Banks and credit card companies are already doing it now. I understand that buying a car means insurance companies will start soliciting you, and vice versa. Buying a home? Prepare for the onslaught of junk mail from Home Depot, Lowe’s, lawn care services, carpet cleaners, roofers, painters, and homeowner’s insurance agencies—oh, and let’s not forget the ads for realtors in all this, even though you just BOUGHT!

We’re to the point where you make one move, and it sets off a cascading marketing blizzard that serves no purpose to the thinking person. Even though the mountain of junk mail sent through the system each day produces little to no results, it yields a tax deduction to the originator in the form of losses and printing/postal expense. Uncle Sam REWARDS them for bugging us!

You know those grocery store cards—those VIP, or so-called “discount” cards? They’re not so much for the discounts as they are for tracking every single thing you buy at that particular store, and guess what happens to that information? Yep, you guessed it—sold down the river again to God knows what marketing and advertising agencies.

Shopping on the web? Using TiVo? You aren’t safe there, either. Everybody’s making money off you but you.

Look for ways to “unplug” yourself from the marketing machine by buying used, soliciting small, local vendors who aren’t likely to sell you down the river, or buying from private parties. Get a post office box or some mail center box--they don’t forward obvious junk mail. Make or grow things yourself, but watch out who you go to for the raw materials—Home Depot, Lowe’s, Joanne Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, and major garden stores are all hooked into the same racket. Limit your TV viewing, and eliminate your TiVo, the house monitor. If you have a DVR device provided to you by your cable outlet, ditch it—it’s also monitoring you. Use a public computer terminal to confound the online marketing pirates.

Last but not least, limit your visits to search engines (a new development)—Google, the former last bastion of government intrusions, has been court-ordered to hand over certain search information to Homeland Security, so God help you if you or your kid have to write a paper about “terrorism,” “child pornography,” “roadside bombs,” " tyranny," or “nuclear weapons.” All the other search engines have happily rolled over and provided this information, and we don’t know who will get it next—Uncle Sam needs money too!

It’s getting to where we have to live in caves (or create our own caves) just to escape the Great Marketing/Monitoring Machine, so we aren’t absolutely deluged with solicitation of choice. More choices don’t make us happier, don’t make us freer, and don’t make us better than anyone else. Choice usually means one great invention followed by a herd of also-rans.

Remember when all we had to choose from was “yes” and “no?” Now we get to reject a whole bevy of things, sometimes at once, by retreating to our own caves. We should’ve never left them.

The Great Obfuscation (L-O-N-G)

Obfuscation (awb-fyooz-CAY-shun), noun— to obfuscate or pull wool over one’s eyes, to confuse utterly, to baffle with bull compost.

A great obfuscation has been engineered in this country, starting with the secret societies of the 1800’s, all in the name of creating importance (mostly self-importance) and exclusivity. It has led to many “spin-off” careers of mystique and intrigue in the fields of data and number manipulations.

Economics: as I have written before, many people make good livings off the manipulation of numbers in an effort to paint the picture rosier than it really is—especially when dealing with the question of “How are we doing as a nation?” These men and women create and keep track of myriads of numbers on myriads of activities in an effort to establish an acceptable answer to that question.

Law: again, many people make great livings off the manipulation of human behavior and punishment for certain ones deemed “bad” by judicial society. What’s worse, there are different individual codes of conduct for each territory and county in each state. What’s even worse than that is the fact that these laws aren’t written or voted on by the people to whom they’ll apply—they’re written by a small minority hierarchy who seldom take into account the needs of the many.

Mathematics: many people are eking out livings in this field as professors and teachers, but the real money comes from mathematics as it is applied to other fields, such as astronomy and space, science, computer science, and engineering. A very exclusive group of professionals manipulate numbers to try to answer questions that cannot be expressed in words (or so they want us to believe). High-level mathematics has become a second language to these professionals, and it really doesn’t mean a thing to anyone outside that world of hypotheses and theories (how would we know if they’re wrong?). The needs of the many don’t often go beyond basic algebra or geometry, yet we are expected to learn number manipulation that far exceeds our need.

Science: yes, even this seemingly-important field dares to cloak itself in mystery as it uses bizarre mathematical equations to explain forces beyond our comprehension, let alone our physical possession (think black holes). There aren’t many who can challenge the equations, yet there are plenty who can collaborate and improve their findings. Who knows if they’re right or wrong? It’s all hypothesis and theory anyway—very darned little has actually been proven.

Advertising: great sums of money flow to successful architects of ad campaigns that lure the unsuspecting into traps of product deceit. Through the use of psychology and science, these professionals have managed to reduce us to mere flies in the spider’s web, and the lures get ever more intricate—fine print, special rules and contest entry requirements, even gleaning addresses and phone numbers from other sources in hopes of pestering a new client out of the woodwork. The use of color, sound, product placement, gender, and familiarity have broken down more barriers to the human mind and buying decisions than a backhoe ever could—as if we needed MORE goading to spend, but that’s their job, and that’s ALL it is!

Finance: not only do many people make great livings in this field, but they’ve managed to erect a shrine to it called Wall Street—the Las Vegas of finance. Closely tied to mathematics and economics, it is the manipulation of money and money-making products to make certain people wealthy or wealthier than they were before. This field has more jargon than the military, and more concepts to befuddle us than the previous mentioned fields. On the face, it appears to be a wholly useless industry: corporate-sponsored gambling at it’s finest. Behind the curtain, it’s a lot of back-stabbing and back-patting as gobs of money exchange gold-lined coffers.

Nutrition: the worst offender of all, because it is the easiest to manipulate. Researchers with their noses to the microscope for years say one thing, and other so-called “nutrition representatives” (AMA, AHA, NIH, etc.) say something else. The end result is a gloriously manufactured chaos and confusion on a gargantuan scale—just the thing to engineer a populace into believing anything they say, and believe it we do. As this is a “food science,” very little has actually been proven, but lots has been said and asserted (much of it incorrect). In this field, we the people have been led WAY off the beaten path into slow self-destruction, through manipulation of nutrient content information and health benefit claims (most of it government-sponsored). Here is where statistical theory plays well—the numbers say anything people want them to say and very little has been actually proven valuable. Just today, I found out the truth about fats and sodium level requirements, and I’ll just say that all those “health professionals” don’t have our best interests at heart when it comes to disseminating (or withholding) this kind of information.

In all of these fields, alchemic phrases are written, and Latin chants are spoken as the few who comprehend (and need to comprehend) mouth along in silence. Exclusivity is once again preserved as the consuming masses are lulled into a mindless sleep over things they choose not to understand, or are believed incapable of it.

Without the hoards of susceptible people out there, these “professionals” wouldn’t even have a place in our society. Like the bumper stickers say, “He said it, I believe it, and that settles it,” only the “He” is replaced by an obfuscator in disguise. Without knowledge and the ability to see through the layers of BS, society will go on getting wool in their eyes while these “professionals” go on creating more layers and more levels of self-importance and exclusivity.

There really IS an “us” and “them,” but it’s not who you think. The wealthy got wealthy by mastering one of the exclusively limited fields of knowledge, and making it work for them (over and over again). They saw through the layers of BS and foreign chants, and learned the success concepts of those fields, while we ordinary folk have not gotten so lucky or chosen to apply ourselves to it. They have managed to keep it simple, while we have managed to keep it away from us. The “them” are the ones who perpetuate this great theatre in an effort to separate themselves from their fellow man by magnitudinal orders of knowledge and information—the NEW segregation. Those without access to even a shred of the necessary information will suffer the fate of waters constantly muddied before them. You can’t swim with the sharks if you can’t see where you‘re going.

Advantage has been taken, and we need to take it back. We need to start caring about the things we don’t now, or don’t see a need to know. This has been going on a long time, and will continue to do so until we decide to catch up and become seat holders in the great card game of (pick your field). From the days of the secret societies, where the so-called “wise ones” met, discussed, and formulated in back rooms away from the masses, to the present, where the “societies” still meet in the open, but use a different language to discuss and formulate, wool has been (and is still) getting pulled over our glazed eyes.

The vital few will outperform the trivial many time and time again, and our country is being engineered to expose those vital few more and more each day—witness the labor picture, the technology picture, and the creativity/inventiveness picture in today’s world.

Cubicle farm slaves willingly report to their masters each scheduled workday, and willingly report to the nearest mall or other shopping outlet on their time off. Because of the crushing debt of children and loans, they cannot afford to lift their noses from the grindstone for even one minute, and it’s too bad—a brief look up might yield the light bulb moment of realization that this society has played a cruel joke on them, and might even spark the fire to do something about it.

Let’s start a new American dream—one that starts with eliminating traditional wants and desires (the house and kids), and replaces them with: information, knowledge, and the will to keep up with the sharks in certain tanks. They alone hold the keys to success and simplistic truth in the fields they have mastered, and this is the only way to remove the wool from your eyes once and for all. The truth is out there, but questions remain: do you really want to know it, and are you prepared to do something with or about it? Start by asking Google a few things.

Book Review: Millionaire Republican—Why Rich Republicans Get Rich, and How You Can Too!

I actually had a day with absolutely nothing to do, so I brushed the dust off my reading pile and dug in.
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First, let me save you some time and money right from the get-go: if you already have a good grasp of wealth-building and positive attitude, skip this book. All it does differently is throw politics into the equation. It’s kind of like Rich Dad, Poor Dad goes to Washington.

Now, for the formalities: This book is written by Wayne Allyn Root, who is supposed to be some sort of big-time sports handicapper, and who WAS a one-time sports announcer for several TV and radio channels. He even billed himself as the “Jimmy the Greek of his generation.” Published by Penguin Group in 2005, this book is 242 pages long in hardback format. While not a big or thick book, it’s packed with inspirational motivation for the neophyte Republican or millionaire wannabe.

If I had to buy this book again, I would pass on it—this was clearly not the book touted to me on Amazon.

For one thing, he doesn’t address any kind of discipline with spending, a vital part to wealth-building. Secondly, he drags politics into the mix—a real crowd disperser if there ever was one!

He states the obvious as if it’s a tried-and-true path to wealth: following the Republican “road to riches.” The truth of the matter is that politics doesn’t have a thing to do with creating wealth—just what you do to protect it.

Simply pulling the red lever isn’t enough to make you a millionaire. The red lever, however, will tell you (through the tax code) how to hang onto what you do have.

In the book, he does make some good recommendations:

• Live, do business, and invest in a red state (not because it IS a red state, or because of a more favorable tax structure, like he advocates, but because the future of this country depends on the migration of the creative class to more favorable tax environments).

• How to see through the lies perpetuated by the Left when to comes to taxes and wealthy people.

• Own whenever possible.

• Invest in the Boomers via “vanity” industries, like cosmetic surgery centers, cosmetic dental practices, health food stores and supplement outlets, spas and resorts, and exercise gyms/workout centers.

I would only recommend this book to those who are relatively new to the concept of wealth, politics, how money and politics go hand in hand, and positive affirmations about going out on your own. For anyone else, I’d say to rely on your own brain—there’s nothing new to see here.

Financial Responsibility Meets Homeland Security

Have you heard the one about the guy who tried to pay off his credit card, only to get flagged for surveillance by Homeland Security?

No? Well, here it is, straight from the source:
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Warning! Financial responsibility can lead to terrorism
By BOB KERR
Providence Journal

"Walter Soehnge is a retired Texas schoolteacher who traveled north with his wife, Deana, saw summer change to fall in Rhode Island and decided this was a place to stay for a while.

So the Soehnges live in Scituate now and Walter sometimes has breakfast at the Gentleman Farmer in Scituate Village, where he has passed the test and become a regular despite an accent that is definitely not local.

And it was there, at his usual table last week, that he told me that he was "madder than a panther with kerosene on his tail."

He says things like that. Texas does leave its mark on a man.

What got him so upset might seem trivial to some people who have learned to accept small infringements on their freedom as just part of the way things are in this age of terror-fed paranoia. It's that "everything changed after 9/11" thing.

But not Walter.

"We're a product of the '60s," he said. "We believe government should be way away from us in that regard."

He was referring to the recent decision by him and his wife to be responsible, to do the kind of thing that just about anyone would say makes good, solid financial sense.
They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.
And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.
Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.
But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to others," he said.”
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Man! I’m glad I cleared all my debt BEFORE this Homeland Security was created. Now, just think of all the people out there who refinanced their homes just to do precisely the same thing—how many of THEM do you suppose got flagged the way Walter did?

Could YOU be flagged the same way and not even know it?

Is this a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars, or what? Active terrorists exist, yet the people in charge of preventing future attacks are bogged down with people who simply paid off debt. This is our government in action, folks!

Borrowing Wholesale to Buy Retail

The world wants to know why most do it, including me.

This came to my attention as I sat through another humbling installment of Flip This House, where a real estate investment company armed with chuckleheads from the south go out and procure houses at auction for flipping. It occurred to me that they may be going to auction, but they aren’t getting bargains for those houses they fix up and flip. Neither are the first-time flip artists of the show Fix It and Flip It.

The reason? They’re buying at retail prices (or near it), even though they’ve learned to borrow wholesale.

There are absolute scads of homes for sale across the country in HUD, REO, and foreclosure listings, and are at least 20% off the market retail price (some as high as 70% off), yet they sit in someone’s inventory because they aren’t perfect turnkey properties. Isn’t the whole reason for flipping to refurbish and resell?

Yet people continue to buy from classified ads and for sale signs posted in yards.

Last year, I included the concept of “borrowing wholesale” in a large treatise on passing up nickels and dimes for bigger savings. I know my little speel alone didn’t set off a wave of refis, but something did—probably mounting credit card debt. Let’s just go ahead and trade one debt for another, shall we?

The ones who got a whole new mortgage to buy a whole new house didn’t bother to take the PRICE of that house into consideration—they were led by the real estate frenzy. No time to think, no time to investigate, no time to weigh consequences pro and con—got to rush out there and buy something before it’s too late. Too late for WHAT, I ask?

As fast as people on either coast are driving up prices with demand, others are going into default because of their lack of planning, mainly for cost carriage. These houses in default are just as good as ones who have signs in the yards—just a little cheaper, thanks to some inept planning or an unforeseen change in circumstances. Yet nobody, it seems, is interested in buying WISELY these days while desperately attempting to finance their way into the Ownership Society.

When I wrote my message about how to best use interest rates and finance options to your best advantage (borrow with an ARM when rates are high and falling, consistently adding extra principal payments), it was assumed that people would do their level best to seek out the lowest priced real estate possible, or at least rent it out for a second source of income, but no. Thank God there’s still time to rectify this.

When interested in buying real estate for yourself or for investment (rental), get on the computer and look up listings for REO (foreclosed real estate owned by banks), HUD (a government agency called Housing and Urban Development), VA Repo (Veteran’s Administration repossessions), regular foreclosure (the process hasn’t been completed yet), and tax liens in your state (if it has them). These properties can range from a mere 20% off to as much as 70% off, depending on how much is left on the original mortgage. These properties need some work more often than not, and it’s wise to learn what sort of work would mean big out-of-pocket costs to you.

Government agencies and banks have lists of house inventory that they must dispose of, because they need the money to finance other projects, and these properties are cheapest when sitting in inventory before they go to auction (and we all know what happens at an auction). Once they go to auction, the bidding war begins—higher and higher the prices go, until the highest one wins, and the bank or agency pockets the difference between the auction price and what they would’ve taken for it back at the office. At some auctions, the bidding gets so high that it ends up exceeding regular market value for a property!

Why borrow wholesale only to buy retail? You buy clothes, knick-knacks, and kitchenware wholesale at thrift stores and yard sales, you buy food in bulk for a better price, you buy used cars for a better bargain, so why buy your (used) house for more than you have to? Maximize that real estate purchase with your maximized loan dollars, and let the TV flippers show you what NOT to do—that’s their real purpose anyway.

By buying from an agency or a bank, you get some benefits, including: no commissions, possible vendor financing, low competition, and current homeowner bypass (dealing with a distressed owner can be a pain) to go with your reduced price.

While rates are still headed up, now would be a good time to look into this and start forming a plan, assuming you’re still in a position to do something in the way of buying real estate. By the time rates are headed back down, you’ll hopefully know what you want to buy from whom, and what it will take to fix it up and rent it (or move in). When rates bottom once again, it’ll be time to sell at market value, and this will be your reward for time and brainpower spent. Who knows—you may even clear enough to go through this little drama again…and again…and it may even become a new income stream for you, so you don’t have to work so hard for someone else.

Real estate bubble talk be damned! That’s another misnomer from the sock-drawer wizards on high. As long as there is demand at any price, there will be supply—end of economic story for real estate, except for the poor fools who willingly pay enormous sums for ho-hum houses, then try to fix-and-flip their way out of the carry charges in a rising rate environment. Every market has it’s cycles, including real estate, and you just have to learn how to make them work in your favor.

Harry Potter and the Bureau of Statistics (L-O-N-G)

Unfortunately, this is not the latest installment of the wildly popular series—this is the first and only installment of how economic wizardry pulls some serious wool over all our eyes.

Before I delve too deep into metaphoric jargon (my second language), I’ll lay out a legend for you: Harry Potter represents the unsuspecting American citizen, and any references to wizardry represent the manipulation of economic data, and any references to art represent the picture we’re supposed to see rather than what’s on the canvas underneath it.

I’ll have you know that this little ditty rolled me out of bed at 6:30 this morning, and of course, I had to write it down and publish it before I lost it entirely. I guess I haven’t completely run out of mental spark yet.

Okay—on to the tale.

Each month, the Bureau of Statistics (where we all ought to keep our socks and underwear, mind you) releases “economic data” to the news wires, who then report it to the Harry Potters of the world, using leading and lagging indicators. These indicators are supposed to paint a certain picture of how our economy’s doing and gauge how we feel about the economic world we live in—this is called “consumer sentiment.”

Every time we hear a report of things like “housing starts,” or “unemployment claims,” or CPI (meant to indicate core inflation—another misnomer in itself), we’re supposed to go out and shop to match our mood. This generates the “retail sales” numbers—another indicator of how we’re feeling about our economic world and the future of it.

Where the wizardry comes in: statistics can say anything you want them to say, as we all learned in math class. The Bureau knows this, and uses it effectively to paint a rosy picture for us to carry in our heads as we shop. When these so-called “indicators” were created, certain things that could prove worthy of true economic representation have been conveniently left out—heaven forbid the rosy picture begins to dim.

Take the purported savings rate in this country for example—the things that AREN’T included in the calculation wizardry are the places we’re most likely to put our short-term money: savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs, and money market accounts. Home equity and retirement accounts aren’t even figured into this spell as it is chanted every month. Poor Harry is slated as a negative saver because he doesn’t buy Treasury bonds and notes!

Re-jigger this spell with some reality, and I assure you Harry is the positive saver his colleagues know he is.

Now, on to unemployment: As Harry and his crowd know it, unemployment is a bad thing—no job means no food on the table and no rent paid. But the Bureau and Wall Street see it as a good thing (called a contrarian indicator) because the lower the company payroll, the lower the overhead and the higher the profit to shareholders. They actually celebrate higher unemployment claims while more of Harry’s friends shuffle off to shelters and food banks. Again, re-jigger this with some reality, and the picture starts to fade.

Housing starts, or the number of building permits pulled to begin construction, is supposed to be a measure of productivity in this landscape—since the only thing we still produce for ourselves is houses, this should go without saying, right? But housing can only go on in certain seasons in certain regions before it becomes too cold or too hot to build, so Harry ought to be shown actual timesheet numbers vs. work completed, or so we think. The grand wizards at the Bureau only want the average, so they go for an occupation that only has “average” employment throughout the year. Again, add reality and the numbers would be very different—especially accounting for all those temps, H-B1 visa workers, and illegal immigrants, which currently don’t enter into the equation.

Core inflation (potholders please, ‘cuz this one is HOT!) , another method of economic wizardry, is the worst of all, because it doesn’t include any reality at all for the consumer. It only measures inflation as it occurs from raw materials to wholesale suppliers and businesses, which is miniscule at best when you consider the retail markup. This “core” doesn’t have anything to do with purchasing the finished product, and doesn’t include what consumers buy most often: food and energy. Why is this? S-U-B-S-I-D-I-E-S. Uncle Sam subsidizes food and energy like there’s no tomorrow, and he would be counting his own efforts and neutralizing those of private industry (which wouldn’t take much, considering that Uncle Sam is the largest domestic contractor we have)--he can't count money he's moved from one pocket to the other.

Each month, the music gets turned up, the dancers dance, the grand wizards release their incantations, and none of it matters a jot except to would-be broom buyers. Meanwhile, the artists dab on some more sunset rose color to the canvas for the passers-by to see and celebrate their genius.

Meanwhile, none of them has stopped to consider that the canvas is actually a paint-by-numbers one, carefully drawn out, and the hue shades planned in advance. The numbers have been carefully manipulated so the artist’s palette doesn’t include colors of the somber truth like olive greens and charcoal grays.

The grand wizards at the Bureau may as well be nothing more than street magicians with their shell games and the smoke-and-mirrors booth. The Fed chairman may as well be David Copperfield, who comes from a place where things (like good faith and credit) are simply pulled out of the air.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, for he holds no control over you or your money. You work, you spend appropriately, and you know what color your picture is—that’s economics without a wand. Take away all the hot air and floating balloons of government and Wall Street, and we'd be left with an economy the size and state of Iraq's--reduced to simple buy and sell in a market stall--for all to see clearly. THAT'S what's under the careful paint-by-numbers map.

Work More, Get Less Done

Productivity is up (or so economists tell us), people are working longer hours, some are lucky to take home a little more pay than they did last month, and some even manage to clear out their inboxes (both physical and electronic) on a regular basis.

So why are we getting less done?

Blame technology. We are bombarded with an average of 64 e-mails per day, most of them spam, and then there’s that dreaded jangling phone (in spite of the voice mail hell the company installed to deflect a lot of the nuisance), not to mention the well-meaning but bored and hovering co-worker frequently visiting cubicles to see what’s up. When he or she isn’t stopping by, they send you an e-mail instead. Arrrggh!

With all these interruptions (not to mention smoking breaks if you take them), how are you supposed to get any actual work done?

Well, CEOs and other upper management types get to work early just to handle this sort of stuff before they actually start their work day. I’m not suggesting YOU come to work early if you aren’t getting paid for it, but you could restrict your technology intrusions to specific times during the day, like:

• After lunch
• An hour before you leave for the day

What may also help in the war against spam messages is to create filters (if your e-mail program permits it). Set it up so only work-related addresses and keywords get through, and all else can be sent to the trashcan. If need be, talk to your boss about setting up a special work-related keyword that everyone can use for filtering, so they know it IS a matter related to their employment and the company, and not a casual spammer who happened to get lucky in his choice of subject line that day.

I don’t know what to do about the phone, except to say not to bring your cell phone to work. If you must due to stringent personal call rules, then keep it off until lunch time or after work. Otherwise, let the secretary or voice mail handle what they get paid to do.

If you’re at the mercy of a PDA, I don’t know what to tell you there, either, since I don’t own one, and wouldn’t use one if given the chance. It’s just one more way people can wheedle their way into your precious time. I suppose you could use some strategies that I listed above for the e-mail and enlisting specific time for checking it.

Wear a beeper? You may as well give up on getting anything done besides answering it. I used to wear up to four beepers at a time while working at Target—when other departments went to lunch, I took over while they were gone. Yep. We were short-handed back then, too, but I thank God most of my customer issues were face-to-face and not blaring at me through a bandolier of beepers. For 30 minutes, I did nothing but wander the floor of the “lunching departments” looking for potential customers in need of information—better to head them off before they called the operator upstairs!

If you find yourself working longer and harder, yet getting less done, look into ways of cutting back on the technological intrusions—you’ll be glad you did.

As Hilarity Ensues

WIC, in conjunction with the American Dietetic Association, has chosen to observe the month of March as "Nutrition Month."

Now, if any of you know about WIC, or at least notice the kinds of foods WIC promotes as healthy in its program for women, infants, and children, you'd see why I flag this as hilarity--the food is all JUNK!

White flour, sugar, frozen juice laden with chemicals, so-called "American" cheese, and not one iota of produce, fresh meats or dairy, or even vitamin pills to compensate for the distinct LACK of nutrition in this very program's offerings.

Let the uproarious laughter begin!

This Idea Just In: Giving Up Junk for Lent

With the latest consumer income and spending reports in this afternoon, we once again managed to spend .02% more than we pulled in.

Since Lent is here, let's make a pledge not to purchase anuything that doesn't have to do with nutritious food, necessary clothing, shelter, or necessary transportation--and put the savings in the bank--until Lent is over.

The amount you save should be interesting to say the least. No Starbucks, no glam shoes, lunches out, case quantities of chips from the warehouse store, joyrides, or baskets full of makeup.

Give up junk for Lent and see how it will change your life--maybe even beyond Lent itself! Tell us what you're prepared to do without this holiday.