Good Morning From Amazon--Book Recommendation

Cheaper and Better: Homemade Alternatives to Store-Bought Goods

This book is old, but good if you use a lot of store-bought stuff regularly. I used to own this book, but donated it to my library once I figured out I don't need it for myself.

In this economic time, others may welcome the recommendation.

Alexander Tytler and the Fatal Sequence

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

* From bondage to spiritual faith;
* From spiritual faith to great courage;
* From courage to liberty;
* From liberty to abundance;
* From abundance to complacency;
* From complacency to apathy;
* From apathy to dependence;
* From dependence back into bondage."

Glenn Beck has mentioned the list part on his show a couple of times, but I wanted to run the introduction--it's just as important. We've just about finished the sequence.

We've long since learned how to vote largesse from the treasury--Peggy the Moocher was the last televised blatant example of it. Detroit produced soundbites of the most recent memorable example as citizens lined up around a building waiting for their turn at "Obama money."

Here's a diagram of the fatal sequence--also known as the Tytler Cycle.

Why Big Shopping Bargains are Bad News for America

From CNN/Time.

"...part of what got us here was overspending, and that that overspending was fostered by a shopping culture that uses cheap goods to hook people on feeling like they're winning at something. As a country, we held nearly $1 trillion in credit-card debt this time last year — about the same as the value of all the goods and services produced in South Korea annually. We've bought so much stuff that we've struggled to find places to fit it all. The U.S. went from having 300 million square feet of self-storage space in 1984 to 2.4 billion square feet in 2008, according to the Self Storage Association, a 700% surge. By 2005, one in five new houses came with three garage bays — the third, real-estate agents explain, to store all the "toys."

...

""We have this cycle we've developed — work intensively, buy more, repeat," says Carolyn Danckaert, New American Dream's director of home and community programs. "At a certain point, the accumulation of stuff starts to drive your life." As Juliet Schor, an economist at Boston University who helps run the group, points out in her book The Overspent American, when workers became more productive over the second half of the 20th century, we as a society chose to take the benefit as more stuff. We could have also decided to, say, work a little less."

Especially bad is Black Friday--we're being trained to gorge on what we're led to believe are "bargains", when in fact, they're inferior goods left over from holidays past, made with child sweatshop labor, are full of harmful chemicals, and come complete with price mark-ups, stampeding crowds, limited inventory, long waits for delivery, and no option to return or exchange it if it arrives damaged in shipping, damaged in delivery, or simply no longer fits the bill...all to satisfy stock holder desires for some positive news on the bottom line--either for the store or the manufacturer.

We're also being trained to sacrifice our dignity, sanity, and money for this garbage. This is want creation in action!

If things get bad enough, there will probably be a Black Friday once a month. When that happens, it's goodnight, Lucy.

In the meantime, do your shopping AFTER the holidays--it's cheaper.

More Personal Abdication--2009 Style

I've talked about personal abdication before in this article. It seems to keep evolving and changing players, but not locations.

Once again, as stated in my article, I saw another homeless fraud on the way to Sam's Club--this one was a woman who was clean, well dressed with brand-new Army flak jacket (appropriate for these cold mornings), hair fixed, and begging. She had taken the same position the man had previously--that turn lane to Sam's must be a lucrative one!

The man who used to hang out there was either arrested, or holding another lucrative corner, because I hadn't seen him lately. What I HAVE seen is a slow increase in the number of people living under a freeway overpass we travel under to get to Sam's. Every now and again, the cops will clear this area out--they're way overdue.

At least this woman wasn't advertising herself to be a homeless vet like the guy was. Instead, she simply dressed in Army/Navy surplus clothing and IMPLIED it.

Do you have any idea how much money these people rake in TAX FREE? I'm all for free enterprise, but not THIS kind...this is straight-up fraud. They could be more blatant about it by setting up a booth outside the exit from Sam's like everybody else who begs for money--the Scouts (pick your flavor), various Little League/Peewee teams, numerous drill and glee teams, even the local paper was hawking subscriptions with a free tool set for each one.

How long before Joe and Jane Sixpack can set up a booth begging for donations for the Sixpack Family Fund? When are the Sam's Club roadside beggars going to either be arrested for begging without a permit, or worse, drag some kids out there to garner more sympathy from the car crowd?

As I write this, plenty of aluminum cans go uncollected (despite our city recycling efforts), plenty of plastic water bottles go uncollected, plenty of tree limbs and pinecones go uncollected and can be used for fires, and plenty of blood, sperm, and eggs go uncollected (some of these are VERY valuable--one egg can fetch as much as $50k).

If one applies their imagination, there are ways to support one's self without having to resort to annoying and possibly illegal begging. Even resorting to succumbing to Obama's whims has huge payoff--he wants you sucked into the Social Service system so badly, he lowered the requirements. Getting food stamps, welfare, public housing of some sort (even shelters), and even government-sponsored cell phones are just mere signatures away. You don't even have to work in this day and age--just be willing to let Obama's party support you in exchange for your vote. Where do you suppose the $787B stimulus (our tax money) went? It went mostly to funding the social services and redistributing our wealth.

Look for more of this to occur in 2010 and 2012--just in time for midterm and general elections.

Countless people went on unemployment (and never came off until it ran out) because it meant more money than actually working--unfortunately, that "free money" was taxable, and now they owe the IRS. It's tough to collect from an unemployed person, so people go on being unemployed...LEGALLY unemployed. They now beg on the corners and freeway exits, rip off other people and businesses (especially those tip jars and fund-raising jars for accident victims), steal cars, go into abandoned homes and steal copper and other metal for cashing in, and all manner of other things looking for that quick buck. Or they gave in, signed up, and are now on Obama's plantation--sacrificing dignity, freedom, and individuality along the way.

I'm (again) all for making a buck, preferably under the radar for tax purposes, but committing crime is a whole different matter. The tax code practically SPELLS OUT how to make a living without being taxed, and how much you can make without raising the eyebrows of the IRS--the trick is learning to live within those parameters so you STAY under the radar.

Standing on the side of a well-trafficked exit lane (where cops even go) is NOT a smart move to begin with when you don't have permission from the city (via permit) to be there. Compounding the error with a "homeless vet" get-up (in a military town, mind you) doesn't do it either, especially when you're clean, have neat clothes, and your hair is fixed. It didn't work for me when the guy out there last year had a leather coat on and was shaven!

This was a public display of stupidity more than homelessness--stupidity on the part of the participant as well as the people who fell for it and handed money over.

I say stupidity because:
1. There's no such thing as a homeless vet unless he/she WANTS to be. The VA has a multitude of homeless/unemployed vet programs, including subsidized housing and priority on public housing, shelter, and rehab lists.

2. To pick a corner that cops travel by is stupid in itself, unless you WANT to risk arrest...which leads to a comfy cell and three square meals a day, plus free clothing and access to showers.

3. There are plenty of social services in the area, so why expose yourself and your fraud to the elements when you don't have to? Our current leader will set you up for life (or until the next election) with free shelter, free food, free transportation, free communication, free counseling, free daycare, and just about anything else your little heart may desire...provided you do your part to keep his party in power, and this may mean becoming part of a protest (or anti-protest) group, pushing Obama's agenda despite your personal feelings, and begin thinking that God (Obama) will provide, sacrificing your own freedom, dignity, and individuality in the process.

Global Warming With the Lid Off

From the Wall St. Journal. You've heard about this on TV--the emails showing that climate data was purposely falsified to reflect a warming climate. Well, here's more of the story.

This was the biggest political rip-off of the century...or at least COULD HAVE BEEN, and it was all done Bernie Madoff-style. A whole new "energy economy" was in the making so the rich and influential could STAY that way...including T. Boone Pickens, country leaders, politicians, etc. Our own economy was in the toilet, and Obama was going to see it stayed that way, so money and attention would be diverted into this "new" Wall Street with no rules or regulations--energy trading. Al Gore was their pitch man.

The energy credits exchange was already set up in London, where foreign traders wouldn't be subject to taxes, or if they did, the taxes would be another write-off. The U.S. "credits" were already cornered by G.E. These energy traders would be the new Masters of the Universe--the rest of us wouldn't be able to go anywhere, do anything, or make anything without having to seek permission (through energy credits/a.k.a. "pollution credits") to do so. We peons would all be thrown back into Third World status practically overnight.

Global warming was just the beginning...pile this on top of Health Care "Reform" and all the goodies hidden in THAT trap, and Universal Savings (yet to come), and all the other "universals" in the wings, and you'd have Obama's America--and Uncle Sam's REAL plantation! We'd be so under the thumbs of government, it wouldn't be funny.

Speaking of under thumbs, you see who fell hook, line, and sinker for this marketing scheme--the most susceptible of us all to marketing: Europe, who is ALREADY under government thumb pressure, and Liberals, who WANT to be under government thumb pressure because they can't think or do for themselves.

Here's what I wrote about global warming back in 2007:
The Great Scam That is Global Warming
Green is Making Me See Red

2008:
Global Warming as Environmental Creationism

2009:
Global Warming--When All Else Fails, Change the Marketing Plan

Now I'm going to have my moment: I TOLD YOU SO!!! Our last weapon to fight this stuff off is our vote--vote the incumbents and anyone else OUT unless you can verify they're moderates. Progressives MUST go!

Celebrate Thanksgiving Ayn Rand Style--Thank Yourself!

From Yahoo Opinion.

"Ayn Rand described Thanksgiving as "a typically American holiday" whose "essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers' holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production." She was right."

...

"We recognize that individuals free to produce create enormous wealth. We uniquely dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. It's no accident that Americans have a holiday called Thanksgiving – a yearly tradition when we pause to appreciate the bountiful harvest we've reaped.

What is the contemporary version of this bountiful harvest? In spite of the current state of the economy, it's our affluence. It's the cars, houses, and vacations we enjoy. It's the medicines we rely on, the movies we watch, and the safe, clean streets we live on. It's the good life, for the long haul.

How do we get this bountiful harvest? Watch any hardworking American. We create it by working hard year after year, and by wanting excellence for ourselves and our loved ones. What we don't create ourselves, we use our best judgment to trade value for value with those who have the goods and services we need, such as our bankers, hairdressers, and doctors. We alone are responsible for our wealth. We are the producers and Thanksgiving is our holiday.

So, on Thanksgiving, we should thank ourselves and the other producers who make the good life possible. Why don't we?"

This Atheist is asking too...why DON'T we?

Wanted--Iconoclasts

From Prudent Bear.

"...the nexus of Washington and Wall Street has grown corrupt and its corruption has come to exert increasing costs on society as a whole. Wall Street has become excessively concentrated, trading dominated and rent-seeking, while its rewards, like those of the overblown Byzantine hierarchy, have become completely out of proportion to the increasingly impoverished lives led by the rest of the population. Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein claims that his organization is "doing God's work;" St. John of Damascus, the leading iconodule would doubtless have claimed the same on behalf of the Byzantine Church. In Washington, eight years in which the ideology that had been sold to the voters in 2000 was replaced with something quite different, there's a new clerisy even more enthusiastic to expand the power of government without very much regard as to whether that expansion is either cost effective or helpful to the population as a whole.

In such an atmosphere, with unemployment above 10% and rising, and U.S. living standards descending inexorably towards those of the Third World, it is not surprising that the public beyond the Washington Beltway is in an iconoclastic mood. Its iconoclasm is rational, economically speaking. The tight oligopoly of Wall Street is profiting excessively from its 2008 bailout by taxpayers, with the payments to Goldman Sachs and others on the AIG credit default swaps coming to seem increasingly misguided and possibly corrupt, given Goldman Sachs's close connection with the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson who disbursed taxpayers' money in such an unproductive manner. AIG and Citigroup remain in business, with even AIG Financial Products, the cause of much of 2008's pain, still in operation. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain dispensing their guarantees to the housing market, noticed by the media only at the end of each quarter as they tote up their losses and demand further billions of the taxpayers' money. The economically damaging subsidies to home purchase, diverting as they do scarce U.S. capital towards yet more unproductive housing, have just been extended both in time, for a further six months and in scope, to existing homeowners. The economic recovery, such as it is, appears to producing almost no jobs but only an ever-widening spiral in commodity prices, affecting the costs of everything the public consumes and eroding the value of its meager savings."

...

"An icon-smashing president is probably likely to arrive before an icon-smashing Congress, given the electoral advantages to congressional incumbency. The U.S. economy must thus probably suffer at least another three years with the icons in place. Even a sharp 2010 congressional change would probably produce only legislative gridlock, although a belated conversion to iconoclasm by the Obama administration might produce change sooner. By 2013, the case for iconoclasm will be obvious to all. The current period of low interest rates and bubble creation will have met its inevitable sticky end, and the economic costs of unproductive icons will be fully apparent. The economy will be locked in an inflationary version of 1990s Japan, in which necessary reforms have not been taken and the detritus of old problems clogs up the streams of capital formation. At the same time, the costs of health-care reform will be looming close, and the tax increases necessary to move even partially towards balancing the federal budget will be hurting both taxpayers and the economy."

The Senate Health Care Bill and the 5 Paragraphs You MUST Read

From Yahoo Opinion. This is scary reading!

"What most of us know about the Democratic bill is that it requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance. What most of us don't know is that it requires us to buy a minimum level of insurance approved by the federal government, and forces health plans and providers to share our personal health information with the federal government and other entities.

If this bill becomes law, we could each be assigned a national beneficiary ID number or card (possibly an electronic device). And our personal health information will flow electronically to the US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) – and many others – without our consent."

And this is just the start.

The 5 paragraphs you MUST read have to do with:

1. Mandatory insurance--"Translation: Uncle Sam will now serve as your national insurance agent and force you to buy "minimum essential coverage" – or else you'll have to pay an annual fine.

However, what Congress considers "minimum essential coverage" and "essential health benefits requirements" includes comprehensive coverage that many neither need nor want. Plus, those who prefer to carry catastrophic-only coverage won't have a free range of options for such coverage.

Bottom line: In a free society, the government should not force citizens to buy any product nor should the government mandate citizens' level of health-insurance coverage."

2. Electronic data exchanges--"Translation: Requiring everyone to buy federally sanctioned health insurance, and then forcing qualified plans to comply with Administrative Simplification requirements, provides the government and health industry with power they would not be able to exercise in a free market.

Administrative Simplification rules are a product of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. They lay the foundation for a nationally linked database of personal health information. A federal "Nationwide Health Information Network" (NHIN) is well under way in the United States, without assurances that individuals will control their personal health data.

Bottom line: Americans should be able to contract privately with the insurance companies of their choice. Patients should be able to decide whether to have electronic or paper medical records, and not have the government require electronic records, which are then included in a nationally linked database."

3. Real-time health and financial data--"Translation: Administrative Simplification rules are being expanded to gather real-time financial and health data on individuals through a tracking ID, possibly a "machine readable" ID card (electronic device).

Bottom line: Moving forward with real-time data collection without an ethical patient consent provision means everyone loses their health-privacy rights. Congress needs to enact strong patient consent provisions for all health data, especially data collected "real-time."

4. Health data network--"Translation: Your personal health information may soon be studied by government scientists. Washington is creating a new research center that plans to use patients' electronic health records for conducting research and creating disease registries. The data network is comprehensive and includes use of electronic health records.

Bottom line: Federal funds should not be used to collect data electronically and conduct research on patients' personal health information without their consent."

5. Personal health information--"Translation: Think your health privacy is protected? It's not. This language refers to "applicable confidentiality and privacy standards," but HIPAA's so-called privacy law permits individuals' personal health information to be exchanged – for many broad purposes – without patients' consent (See 45 CFR Subtitle A, Subpart E – Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information; section 164.502(a)(1)(ii) "Permitted uses and disclosures").

Bottom line: Trust is a must for ensuring quality healthcare. Thus, as stated above, Congress needs to pass a strong, ethical patient consent law that ensures patients have control over the flow of their personal health information."

Neither the House bill nor the Senate bill can go forward, in my opinion. They're both pieces of expensive, unnecessary, and invasive trash, and these are reasons why we should vote these mothers OUT! First, it's control in the guise of health care reform...next, it's hello, Britain and British-style society with cameras on every corner, and MI-6 in your bank account and on your phone. They even have the capability to know what you're watching on TV, cooking in your oven, and washing in the laundry.

Do we want to live like that? I thought that was why we LEFT England (besides the king)? Why would we want to bring it all back here?

I know why--political power. Obama wants to be king.

The Day Global Warming Stood Still

From Yahoo news.

"As scientists confirm the earth has not warmed at all in the past decade, others wonder how this could be and what it means for Copenhagen. Maybe Al Gore can Photoshop something before December.

It will be a very cold winter of discontent for the warm-mongers. The climate show-and-tell in Copenhagen next month will be nothing more than a meaningless carbon-emitting jaunt, unable to decide just whom to blame or how to divvy up the profitable spoils of climate change hysteria."

...

"I proudly declare 2009 as the 'Year of the Skeptic,' the year in which scientists who question the so-called global warming consensus are being heard," Inhofe said to Boxer in a Senate speech. "Until this year, any scientist, reporter or politician who dared raise even the slightest suspicion about the science behind global warming was dismissed and repeatedly mocked."

Inhofe added: "Today I have been vindicated."

Just in time for Copenhagen! Can I have my incandescent light bulbs back now?

The New Money-for-Life Plan

From MSN Money.

"Intellectually, I knew I couldn't cash out my stocks because I might live another 35 years and I would need the higher investment returns that come from stocks," says Szu-tu, a former technology manager from Syracuse, N.Y. "But emotionally, it was really scary."

...

"He decided he would rest easier if he mentally separated his investments into two groups: cash and bonds that could sustain him through his initial years of retirement, and stock funds that he would leave untouched until they could recover and grow. Without realizing it, Szu-tu had stumbled on an alternative income model that has been kicking around in some retirement-planning sectors for more than 20 years but attracted little attention until recently."

...

"Jim Coleman, the head of Coleman Financial Advisory Group in Waterbury, Conn., has added his own twist to the income-for-life model. When describing the strategy to clients, he tells them to think of a classic risk pyramid, which puts the safest investments (such as bank accounts and money market funds) at the bottom and layers on progressively riskier investments (such as bonds and stock funds), building to a peak.

In the classic model, even if your investments are diversified, all your assets are at risk at the same time. Coleman flips the pyramid on its side so you tap the most conservative, risk-free investments at the beginning of your retirement timeline and let the riskier investments grow until the later years. Your most aggressive assets will have years -- and possibly even decades -- to grow, creating a source of stable retirement income in the future."

Your Sunday Sermon on Quickly Paying Off Your Mortgage

I haven't even made my first mortgage payment (due in December), yet I find myself deluged with bi-weekly payment offers and mortgage credit life offers.

I have a cunning plan that is BETTER and FASTER than bi-weekly plans for paying off the mortgage: the Charles Givens plan (p.121).

This man has been dead for some time (prostate cancer), but his Wealth Without Risk books gave me a leg up on what to do with my money once I got out of debt and learned how to avoid future debt. These books are some 20+ years old, but the info in them is still valid today as it was then--only the numbers have changed.

Just as Clark Howard teaches us how to improve our credit limits and FICO scores in 30 days by paying as we go, and clearing our credit cards a week before they're due, Charles Given can teach us from the grave how to clear our mortgages in record time with little extra expense.

His method: when you take out a mortgage, you usually get an amortization schedule in your paperwork (now it may be available online at your bank--mine is). That amortization schedule shows what your payment is, what part of it is principal, and what part is interest. If you pay your normal mortgage payment on time, then add a second check for next month's principal, you aren't charged interest on next month's payment, because you already paid the principal!

If you are early in your mortgage, you can afford to pay more than one "future principal" payment, because they're very low. When I had my last house, I allowed a $100/month budget for "extra principal" checks, and this sometimes covered as much as 6 months' worth of extra principal in one check. When $100 was no longer sufficient, I added more money to my "budget" until I was back on track for pre-paying 6 months' worth of mortgage principal in one extra check each month.

After doing this for about 4 years, my 30-year mortgage became a 9-year mortgage--had I kept the house, it would've been paid off in 5 more years. Alas, the navy was calling us to Virginia from Texas, so we sold and came here.

I plan to deploy this method again for the current house, and wish I had the heart to tell these bi-weekly mortgage people I had a better plan. :)

You're probably already familiar with paying ONE extra principal payment at a time, but here's how you can snowball it when principal prices are low--when prices become equal to or exceed your "extra check budget", the you can slow down to one extra month's principal each month. You can even round the figure up to the next nearest $100---I did when my principal finally exceeded my "budget."

My current mortgage is so low, I won't be able to write off interest beyond this year and possibly next, so the least I could do is clear this debt with all due speed. I can't play the "interest arbitrage" game like rich people with expensive mansions do--they perpetually refinance the house (depending on interest rates) to keep interest flowing to the bank, then write it off at the end of the year. Basically, the house pays them back, providing the mortgage is of sufficient size (currently around $225k and up).

Sometimes they use a 30-year mortgage (when rates are low and rising), then switch to an ARM when rates are high and falling, and back and forth, never really intending to pay OFF the mortgage. It's more valuable to them as a tax write-off than an asset.

Our current housing crash (beyond the Wall St. derivative and sub-prime financing stuff, straight to the Joe Six-Pack stuff) was based on this method, only something went awry: people were cashing out their equity. Rich people weren't doing this part--they didn't have to! Ordinary people also didn't recognize that cashed-out equity was also taxable as income--this is another reason why rich people didn't do it.

Let us now bow our heads and pray to the Almighty Amortization Schedule. Say it with me now--"I'll pay!" Please put your extra principal payments in the collection plate as it comes to you. :)

"I Blame EVERYONE For the Credit Card Fiasco"

From Martin Weiss Research.

"Sure, the companies are motivated by self-interested greed. But isn’t that the same motivation that led to all of our country’s irresponsible borrowing, too?"

I've been so good with my recent spending spree that my credit union has doubled my credit limit in about a month. While my other card has cut me in half for no good reason (other than to call back its unused credit line), this one seems eager to throw me credit!

My secret, or actually Clark Howard's secret: pay as you go. I clear the card well before the charges are due, so no possible interest can be added to the bill. Every time I've sent them a payment (electronically, so they can get it the next day), they've increased my limit. Not only is this expanding my credit limit, but I'm increasing my FICO to boot.

I fully expect that by the time I run out of spendable money (in the "house" account), the credit union will be sending a sedan chair to my driveway next time I need to go see them. :)

Avoid Foreclosure--Rent Your Own Home

From CNN Money.

This may sound like a cure-all, but believe me, it isn't.

"Fannie Mae implements deed-for-lease program that allows troubled borrowers who don't qualify for loan modifications to stay in their homes."

And when the market comes back, and it WILL come back, who gets the equity? Not only that, what's to prevent the government from selling your house right out from under you--to say, Goldman-Sachs or Citibank, making THEM your new landlord?

Also, what's to prevent them from kicking you out (or relocating you) in favor of a more fiscally-responsible renter or a Section 8 tenant? Or worse--what if they install one of these "smart meters" and get control of your electricity, and your thermostat, essentially forcing you to live like a Third Worlder in "your own" home?

This is one of the myriad ways government is looking to cash in on YOUR efforts. Your future potential home equity, combined with other schemes, will help pay for future government spending Since they can no longer borrow from China, and can no longer borrow enough from other countries, they gotta get it from SOMEWHERE. They know they can't tax it out of us...that would be like killing the goose that laid the golden egg (of votes).

UPDATE: After further surfing, I found the reason for this program.

3 Ways to Save on Health Care Insurance

From CNN Money.

1. Choose the right plan

2. Fund your FSA

3. Test your wellness

These 5 Health Care Culprits Cost $1 Trillion

From CNN Money.

In David Letterman order:

#5--Pollution

#4--Smoking

#3--Alcohol

#2--Sugar (Personally, I'd lump in alcohol with sugar, since they are basically one in the same)

#1--Salt

And we expect the government to make these things go away with the wave of ill-conceived legislation, also known as the public option? Well, pollution they have done away with largely, but the rest they can only manage to erect onerous barricades to them through high taxes (alcohol, cigarettes) or high trade tariffs (sugar), or instill a totally inadequate level for the term "low sodium" (140 mg. or less).

It's GOVERNMENT--what else can we expect? This is why YOU need to become your own primary care provider--only YOU can adequately control the sugar, salt, alcohol, and smoking intake, while avoiding some kinds of pollution the government can't seem to control (pesticides, BPA, mercury, your water supply, etc.). Thew public option isn't going to do any of this for you--it will only provide you with the drugs to SEEM like everything's okay.

Remodeling is a Waste of Money

From MSN Money.

"One of the big myths of homeownership is that upgrades are investments. In reality, renovating is consumption spending. But if you want to remodel anyway, do it right."

Read my article on The Tragedy of House Bling.

FSAs Take Hit in Health Care Overhaul

From Yahoo Health. So much for using them as a fallback against Obamacare!

"Those tax-free spending accounts that you and your co-workers use to help pay for dental work, insurance copayments or over-the-counter drugs face a hit under the health overhaul bills in Congress — unless a coalition that includes a powerful union, insurers and others can stop it.

Bills in the House and Senate would cap at $2,500 an employee's allowable annual contribution to a health care flexible spending account."

...

"Our concern is that a cap of $2,500 is a definite tax on the middle class, particularly those with chronic illnesses," said Jody Dietel, executive director of Save Flexible Spending Plans and chief compliance officer at WageWorks, Inc. of San Mateo, Calif.

Advocates say the typical flexible spending account user makes $55,000 annually.

Although some lawmakers are sympathetic, the opposition appears unlikely to succeed in getting the flexible spending account cap out of Congress' health care bill. Unlike the initial Senate proposal, though, House members want to allow the cap to be adjusted so it would rise along with inflation. That would be a welcome improvement for advocates.

Aides to the Senate Finance Committee, which proposed the cap, defend it by saying it would help curb overuse of medical care. Money deposited in the tax-free accounts must be used within 2 1/2 months of the end of the plan year. That may create an incentive for people to spend all the money even if they don't have pressing needs."

But it's OUR money, and we already HAVE a timeframe in which to spend it--FSA money DOES NOT roll over from year to year like the HSAs do.