“Dancing With the Stars”, “Not Your Ordinary Family”, and “The Defenders” get a look-see and a review. The dancers are into it and we have some thoughts on who’s great, who’s hot, who’s not; two guys defend the bad guys in Vegas and they are, of course, always innocent; and a family with all members having super powers and they’re not on Oprah? What’s wrong with this picture?
Lots of Medicare/Social Security thoughts, as well as a thorough review of the Coons/O’Donnell debate of the “Separation of Church and State” Kerfluffel.
In True Crime, a rather pathetic immigrant is being charged for the murder committed by Gary Condit. Condit was the only American to benefit from the attacks of 9-11-01 as that event took him and his involvement in the then disappearance and eventual murder of his lover, Chandra Levy. The fact that this innocent is being charged with Condit’s crime speaks volumes for the idiot prosecutors involved in this judicial disaster. But maybe it’s the plan?
In Miscellaney we’ve got some Fall garden pics worth a look, plus some humor and a little bit of first grade Kaitlyn.
Pic of the Day
Trial for Murder of Chandra Levy Now Underway
As I am to understand, the trial of Ingmar Guandique for the murder of Chandra Levy is now underway and a jury is being selected. News of this blockbuster case is kind of scarce. In a search online HERE is only one of a few mentions of the manner.
First, I got a bridge to sell, cheap, to anyone who thinks this pathetic loser murdered the girl that Congress Critter Gary Condit actually DID murder.
Below is a summary of my own research of Gary Condit.
Police discovered all of Chandra’s ID, her wallet, her cell phone, still in her apartment after she went missing. How likely is a young woman to leave all this behind unless this was part of a pre-plan? Chandra’s computer was also found to have been used for a search of Rock Creek Park. Chandra’s body was found in Rock Creek Park. Chandra left a message on her Aunt’s phone on the day she went missing, something to the effect that she had really exciting news and an urge for her Aunt to call her back quickly. Chandra’s parents, in their desperation to find their missing daughter, contacted Gary Condit after learning about her relationship with the congressman from Chandra’s Aunt. Condit said he had no idea where Chandra went, that he and Chandra were just friends. Condit said he would contact the DC police to help find Chandra but he did no such thing. Note Condit denied having sort of affair with Chandra until he could no more. Lies, lies and more lies. He lied until he got caught. Condit was a congress critter. Congress types have meetings with constituents, scheduled votes, appointments with the media. Their movements are tracked closely. On the day Chandra disappeared, no one has any proof whatsoever where Condit was all day. In an effort to create an alibi, Condit declared that he met with a reporter on the day Chandra disappeared but he got caught. The reporter had proof that the date of the meeting with Condit was not the day Condit said it was. Condit has NO alibi for the afternoon Chandra went missing, goodness you think there’d be SOME proof of his whereabouts for almost eight hours or some part thereof, wouldn’t you? Under public pressure, Condit did finally take a lie detector test but get this, it was a PRIVATE test, rejected completely by the DC police as invalid.Condit always had Chandra meet him with no ID on her. They went to great lengths to meet secretly in his apartment. Condit told Chandra to tell anyone in his building who should ask that she was there to meet a sick relative. Chandra never got off the elevator on Condit’s floor.
I was not a Blogger when Chandra Levy was murdered but have kept up on the case on my Blog HERE and HERE.
First, the Condit/Levy story was blown right off of the front page on 9-11-01 when four planes were hijacked and rammed into our buildings by a bunch of radical Muslims. Since I don’t work for NPR I can’t get fired for saying this.
The evidence against Condit for the murder of Chandra Levy is largely circumstantial but whew, the circumstances are fairly overwhelming. For the entire day that Chandra went missing NO ONE knew where Condit was. This guy was a congress critter! These fellows have their entire days scheduled down to the minute. Further, in an effort to invent an alibi for himself, Condit declared he had an interview with a reporter. The reporter called him on the lie. Now why did Condit lie about this?
Sadder, the evidence against Guandique is as meager as the evidence against Condit is prolific. Guandique passed a lie detector test when he denied having nothing to do with Levy’s murder. There is no DNA or physical evidence tying Guandique to the crime, none of his DNA on Chandra’s body, nothing. Guandique is currently serving a ten year sentence for attacking two female joggers in 2002. BOTH of these joggers escaped Guandique but we are to believe the athletic, young and strong Levy was the only one of Guandique’s victims to avoid escape?
In fact, the only evidence against Guandique are some jailhouse confessions he made to other convicts. Well here’s a kind of nobody all in jail for robbing some female joggers and with a lie or two he can achieve some notoriety, some attention, on his pathetic life. Guandique claimed that he DID kill Chandra but he was paid by Condit to do so.
Come on. I still got that bridge, cheap. If Guandique did the crime, why does the lie detector affirm that he did not? Why does nobody really know how the lie detector Condit took turned out, for that matter?
Supposedly the jury selection started for this trial on 10/17/10. Even more intriguing, Gary Condit is scheduled to be called in as a witness. I got a bridge to sell if Condit takes that stand.
Hey, maybe the law folks are setting this obvious miscarriage of justice specifically TO catch Condit in some kind of lie.
By me, the charges against Guandique for the murder of Chandra Levy were made when Guandique was in jail anyway. By having SOMEONE charged with the crime, it makes the DC cops not look like the boobs they are. Heh. Remember the Sniper case?
Since Guandique is in jail for ten years, it was easy enough to charge him with the Levy murder and let bygones be bygones. Now that Guandique’s sentence will soon expire or he will be up for parole, somebody’s got to make a move on this thing.
I’ll be watching this circus closely.
Gubmint Run Amok
I’d written a book review, HERE. As part of the review and as is my wont, I went into a little bit of a rant over the new library built in the tiny but pretty town of Georgetown, Delaware.
I think Georgetown is a lovely town although drive through any of its back streets and you’ll find it much like a Mexican barrio, sadly.
I’d lamented the fact that my normally fiscally frugal area went way overboard with this library. So I got a picture of the huge and way out of scale building in relation to the area it serves, below.
As I said in the original rant, Georgetown, Delaware most definitely needed a new library in that the old one was smaller than my house. But it looks like they got carried away with the thing. By me this building could be the library of congress.
BUT THERE’S MORE! Because some pipe or another broke, yes, in this brand new building, the contractor probably a relative of some politico or another as these things too often go, and now the place will be closed to repair the damages for some ten weeks as is reported!
I’m thinking some stimulus money might be involved with this fiasco. I know the Sussex County Council is in a snit over this library, declaring that there is no money budgeted to pay the electricity and such.
Your gubmint, folks. They spend money just to spend money.
Sussex county wasted 25 million building a bridge that had to be started all over again for the bad design.
That’s a Carney issue, the Democrat now running for the position of Delaware’s only Representative in America’s House.
It’s only your children and grandchildren’s money, folks.
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Kaitlyn’s in the First Grade
She looks just like the man her mother lives with. I love her anyway.
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A Smile
Came across this in my Ebox, thought it sadly funny.
MEXICAN HURRICANEA CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE hits Mexico .
Two million Mexicans die and over a million are injured. The country is totally ruined and the government doesn't know where to start and is asking for help to rebuild. The rest of the world is in shock.
Canada is sending troopers to help the Mexican army control the riots.
Saudi Arabia is sending oil.
Other Latin American countries are sending supplies.
The European community (except France ) is sending food and money.
The United States , not to be outdone,is sending two million Mexicans to replace the dead ones.
God Bless America
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The Pirate Ship Blog
I’d written in my last Blog post, HERE, about a fellow creating a Blog for his special needs daughter and a pirate ship he was putting in his back yard for her. I shamelessly entered the praise he gave me in a most kind ego-enhancing email and was delighted to receive back the link, HERE, to his new endeavor.
I’d discussed with him via email the secret of Blogging “successfully” and to my joy he began the Blog and my goodness, he did a great job, great pics, good background.
The secret?
You heard the expression “dance like nobody’s watching, sing like nobody’s listening”? I told my new Blogging buddy…”Blog like nobody’s reading.”
And, heh, this is usually the case, insert smile here.
The Fall Garden
Just some pics
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Mid-Term Elections-Coming Soon!
Coming soon to a polling place near you.
Obama’s losing his mind. Look for the electorate to send him a message, BIG TIME.
A Medicare Story
A reprint of a story I wrote for Facebook. If any reader wants to be my friend on Facebook, where I semi-regularly write posts about local issues and other tongue-in-cheek type entries, see the link to my Facebook below, search for me, befriend me if so desired.
We move on to the state of Delaware and Medicare supplement insurance.
So I now am covered by Medicare, being declared disabled and after the two year waiting period as required before Medicare eligibility is extended. I begin to wonder about obtaining Medicare supplemental insurance, not so much because the various co-pays and such are all that prohibitive. Husband and I both recently suffered some health setbacks for which we were covered by husband’s health insurance through his job. Said job at Penco plumbing supply as some of yon readers might know. I did kind of fret over having some sort of limit on out-of-pocket expenses for husband’s brain infection would have been financially deadly for us had there not been a $4,000 limit on out-of-pocket expense via our private health plan. Medicare has no such cap on these co-pays. The nature of a brain infection is that one needs an MRI on a very regular basis and like everything else in our health system, MRI’s are greatly overpriced. Last I checked, an MRI cost almost $3,000 a pop.
In most cases the co-pays under Medicare are waaaaay less than we paid via our private insurance and we survived those costs just fine. Still I decided to get a quote for the various sorts of Medicare supplement insurance from AARP, via their insurer, United Health.
I’m not making this up. I get a written quote in the mail, and get this…my monthly Medicare supplement insurance, as a non-tobacco user on disability under age 65 was….$2,300 a month!
Over TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH! I think I am seeing things. Bear in mind that this is a quote for a MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT insurance, with Medicare paying the vast bulk of my health care. I am merely seeking a cap on my out-of-pocket costs and NO prescription plan as I already have one.
I turn over the documents, re-read the verbiage, ponder if I’m nuts. The cheapest Medicare supplement plan available to me was around $1,800 a month, which would pay 50% of the co-pays and reduced co-payments like that.
I keep thinking there must be some mistake. While I don’t know much about Medicare supplement, I did discuss this with my mother-in-law during a recent visit. I don’t remember the specifics of her Medicare supplement plan but as I recalled it was something around $300 a quarter. And she’s EIGHTY YEARS OLD! I distinctly remember mentally filing in my brain that for $300 a quarter I could afford a supplement plan.
Finally I call AARP up. I ask them what the hell is this about a $2,300 a month for Medicare supplement. The lady looks up my information and in response to my query that surely this is a mistake! She says no, that the $2,300 monthly quote is correct.
Then she says something intriguing. “You can only get Medicare supplement insurance via AARP in the state of Delaware as a disabled Medicare recipient under 65 if you are in the end stage of renal disease.”
Say what?
“AARP does not offer Medicare supplement insurance to disabled Medicare recipients under age 65 except, like I said, for end stage renal disease patients. That’s why your premium as quote is so high. Are you in an end stage renal disease?”
Well no. I’m 60 years old and fairly healthy having been declared disabled by SS via the proper procedures due to a quadruple bypass a few years ago that combined with my age and difficulty getting employment after that operation had the doctors reviewing my case declaring me, well disabled.
In short, well damn, I should be able to get Medicare supplement at around the same cost my 80 year old Mother-in-law gets but…nope, not in the state of Delaware.
After some thought I conclude that AARP, as often as possible, tries to avoid providing any kind of coverage to Medicare eligible people under age 65 because, well think about it. You get a 20 year old declared disabled due to a bad cancer or a horrific accident…this could cost a company some big bucks over the many years that under age 65 Medicare-eligible person might live, even if just a supplement to Medicare. The lady at AARP did tell me that once I reached age 65 they would cover me at a way cheaper rate, that the cost of over two thousand a month was because treating people in end-stage renal disease is very expensive.
Well I guess so.
Bottom line, I can’t get Medicare supplement, at least from AARP but I suspect that other companies don’t provide either as even the AARP lady told me was the case, until I’m 65. I guess if you’ve lived to age 65 you’re probably considered reasonably healthy and further, won’t likely live many more decades to milk a health insurer dry, again, even if just a Medicare supplement.
States make the rules for health insurers, a huge reason why the cost of health care is so high in this country. In California, in order to sell health insurance the insurer must pay for such as sex change operations. The advantage of selling health insurance across the country is lost because one company cannot offer one policy and sell it to any citizen of America but must instead sell some 50 plans, depending on state rules.
Evidently Delaware allows companies to sell Medicare supplement plans in this state but does not require them to offer this insurance to people disabled, Medicare-eligible, and under age 65. The AARP lady told me that AARP sells Medicare supplement insurance in plenty of other states because the STATES MAKE THEM! In other words, some states say…hey, if you want to make money selling Medicare supplement insurance to seniors, you have to sell Medicare supplement to all Medicare eligible people in our state, even those under age 65. Delaware, as previously stated, only makes health insurers sell Medicare supplement insurance to Medicare-eligible people under age 65 IF they are in end-stage renal disease.
Weird.
I don’t know how these things are determined but it is again one example of why health insurance is so damn expensive in this country.
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The Coons/O’Donnell Debate
Also a Facebook entry, vote this upcoming week, do NOT vote for any Democrats. They had their chance, they blew it.
So I real quick grabbed my little computer when I read that WDEL would be broadcasting a Christine O’Donnell/Chris Coons debate from 8:00 am to 9:30 in the morn on the date referenced above. Dag, I thought, that’s at exactly the time of my morning exercise session that allows the dog to run and helps dilute my cholesterol. The little computer, heh, weighs about four pounds and WDEL streams handily. I get internet reception out to the reaches of my property and so there I was, dog on leash, jogging, walking and doing my normal stretching exercises, little computer in hand.
I heard every word of it, yes I did.
Further, you’ll not get speedy critiques such as this on Delawarepolitics.net, which I mention for a reason, hereby exercising my right to Free speech as I warn about jackbooted, quasi-conservative thugs who erase your comments should you lambaste his wannabe beloved radio station that he calls into constantly and, just throwing it out, well damn he doesn’t want to make the powers that be mad as he too dreams of his own talk radio show. I’ll not mention names, just a warning to watch out for those who profess to be champions of free speech and liberty until you dare to threaten THEIR ambition. There’s also the factoid that I am a much better writer than said jackbooted thug.
This leads me into the interview of Glen Urquhart by Bill Colley of WGMD on his afternoon show on 10/18/10. For the record, I quite like WGMD and play it all the time in my home. Lord I’ve had run-ins with both Colley and station manager Gaffney but go with me here, I consider myself quite lucky to have such a conservative station here in my beloved Sussex county, something I never had in Anne Arundel county Merryland.
I listened to the entire interview and all I can say is it was wonderful. First, I quite adore candidate Urquhart and by me he’s going to win that thing. Glen is very personable, even-toned, sure of his positions, self-deprecating in that the poor soul knows he’s in a back seat what with the histrionics of the O’Donnell campaign but he seems to be quite pragmatic about it, using this rather unique position to his advantage.
Urquhart has run a successful business, unlike his opponent Carney, who was Lieutenant Governor of one of the worst governorships in Delaware history. There’s also that little matter of the little wind farm business Carney tried to start with the help of Delaware taxpayers. Sure, for a million bucks Carney was willing to use any influence he had to get grants for this business, God forbid that a business should round up its own capital like a business should do.
Urquhart’s the man for Delaware and don’t worry Glen, after O’Donnell is elected, as Delaware’s ONLY representative in America’s house, like Castle before you, you’ll have way more power than either of Delaware’s TWO senators. Insert smile here.
As for the Coons/O’Donnell debate of the morn on which I write, a little over-view. First, there were four questioners, one of which is from the Delaware News Journal, a liberal Democratic arm of the party. In fact, heh, at one point Coons even COMPLIMENTED the News Journal, damn you got to view a newspaper as suspect when a candidate slobbers praises on them like this.
As an aside, it sure would be nice if Sussex county had a conservative newspaper like the fine conservative radio station we have. For the record, I once was on the board of the Sussex Countian newspaper. For several weeks I met with some other folks and offered my suggestions on how to improve the paper. My suggestion was that the paper should get off their namby-pamby tendency to avoid all things political and take a damn stand in line with the ideal ology of the people who buy the paper. They didn’t listen. Now the paper’s been bought by some out-of-state group and still it has no depth. But hey, if you want the local high school athlete scores, interviews with the adolescents and their parents, spread over a gazillion pages, the Sussex Countian’s the paper for you.
It sure would be nice to have had a newspaper from Sussex County up there throwing questions at the candidates but twas not to be. I suppose it would have been nice to have someone from WGMD there but not Dan Gaffney please. The man done went over to the dark side.
Another point, COD (Christine O’Donnell from now on) sure did a lot of talking. In fact, it got a bit freaky after a while. I suspect that Chris Coons, who really has so many things going against him, was told to allow COD to speak as much as possible to a)hope she takes a serious verbal stumble and b)avoid talking about issues that are not popular in this age of Obama.
Finally…seriously…Megan McCain? Yes, yesterday there was Megan McCain on some talk show or another, this 26 year old daughter of John McCain, all nasty and calling COD names. Now I defend Megan’s right to free speech as much as the jackbooted thug at Delawarepolitics.net disrespected mine but I do questions just what are her credentials to go lambasting my lawfully elected candidate for state senator. Beyond the free speech thing, as I allow. Because Megan McCain is the daughter of a former GOP presidential candidate and this means …what?
But sure enough, one of the questioners mentioned Megan’s name as reference to COD’s alleged lack of experience and right there I’m very suspicious that this is a setup. Maybe this slur at COD was needed for this question of COD…maybe they got together and figured this is where she might be weak. COD handled the question handily but let’s face it, she has not ever served in any elective office, not that I care, but it’s certainly a good debate point. Megan Mccain…our candidate’s daughter, the moderate Maverick who ran a terrible campaign and is as much responsible for the obamination now ruining our country as much as anyone. It’s seems very planned to me. Moderates sure don’t want staunch conservatives such as COD serving in the senate with them.
As for some of the debate questions, right out of the gate we get the evolution question again. Folks, you and I know that Delawarians do not fret all day about how their senator feels about evolution and how it’s taught in schools. In fact, how many of you know what—CASTLE, BIDEN, or CARPER’s positions are on evolution? They keep throwing this question at O’Donnell cause they want to paint her as a religious zealot. COD handled the question nicely during the Blitzer debate by saying how this sort of thing is taught is best left to the local government and her feelings on the matter are irrelevant.
Which they are, never mind Dan Gaffney’s mockery of COD’s answer in the CNN debate, I remind. Somebody tell these people that we do NOT care how COD feels about the matter of evolution, and how comes with Biden being our Delaware guy since 1972, no one’s ever asked him this question?
As for taxes, dear Lord Coons was all over the place on the Bush tax cuts. He said…um, eh…well he’d definitely reduce them for folks making under $250K and, um, er, ah…well he’d think about them for over that amount and um, eh. COD hit a home run with her assertion that during the lame duck session, in which whoever is elected will serve, she will try to re-instate the death tax on 1/1/2011. She told a very sad story of a cancer-ridden farmer who’s hoping he’ll die before the end of the year so his family won’t lose the family farm.
COD beat Coons senseless over the Afghanistan matter, AIDS and Cap and Trade. On the Cap and Trade question, COD asked Coons if he would recuse himself for voting for Cap and Trade since his WL Gore company would benefit from the legislation, said company already having benefited from Obama’s useless stimulus money. Folks, Coons didn’t even answer the question, Instead, I’m not making this up, he went on about COD’s lack of experience which had nothing to do with the price of eggs when Cap and Trade is passed.
Abv-kaitlyn with christine o'donnell
As for Afghanistan, COD rightfully pointed out that the U.S. abandoned that country back in the 80’s in its fight against the Soviets. This led to the establishment of the Taliban in that country. COD is right about the Soviet thing but I’m not sure a lot of Americans are all that clear on what happened. The bigger point was that we should NOT leave Afghanistan like we once did to have the Taliban or other terrorist groups get a ground hold there to plot attacks on our country like happened with 9-11. Coons’ lack of knowledge and his hemming and hawing on this issue looked real bad.
This is not to say that COD didn’t have some slip ups. She did bring up the matter of there being no reference to separation of church and state in the constitution. Which is true. Separation of church and state is a phrase put in place by this country’s Supreme Court. The first amendment prohibits the ESTABLISHMENT of a church by the state. Still, I’m not sure that COD should even have went there as most Americans don’t know this. The concept of separation of church and state is accepted by our populace as a given and her statement that the constitution does not reference such a thing bought gales of laughter of the audience, most unfortunate.
The summaries of both candidates spoke volumes about the candidates. Coons asserted, I’m not making this up, that Delaware is positioned in such a manner geographically that it receives the air pollution of the rest of America. He then went on to list all the things causing damage to our environment, including, again, not making this up…LAWNMOWERS!
COD gave a very good summation, hitting Coons on how New Castle County went after elderly and disabled citizens as his company took millions in stimulus money, pointing out the awful financial situation the county Coons now leads is in, how Coons had to ask the moderator for a lifeline for the Afghanistan question he could not answer.
I don’t know how anybody listening to that debate could walk away knowing that Coons is a complete failure as a candidate. He was out-debated on every turn, he let COD take over the debate, he evaded many questions. COD did a much better job and it’s obvious that she knows that with the News Journal as a questioner, in Wilmington enemy territory, she couldn’t sit back and let them run roughshod over her.
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Another Medicare Rant
Actually the squirrel story has nothing to do with my SS/Medicare rant but it was cute. For it is fall of 2010 here in the swamps of Delaware, the acorn and black walnut trees drop their “fruit” and, as nature planned, the squirrel-rodents have mated and reproduced. Squirrel-rodents, as I’ve learned through the years of dealing with these annoying little critters I love/hate, raise their young then leave the “territory” as established by the adults BEFORE the babies were born. The youngsters then have an established squirrel-rodent territory free from other pesky adults who would have the acorns/walnut bounty as well.
As I walk my exercise track this morning, dog walks by my side as is the routine. I get within three feet of a tree and there’s this little squirrel-rodent, walking slowly along the ground, just taking a rodent stroll, looking for acorns on the ground I must suppose or I dunno, maybe enjoying the fine fall weather here in the swamps.
My dog, ahem, has this rage upon first seeing a squirrel-rodent, especially one who dares to come into her yard. Perhaps dog was too enjoying the fine fall weather for she did not notice the baby squirrel-rodent directly in front of her, within three feet of her big, black nose. Folks, dog HAS, most unfortunately, managed a time or two to actually capture a squirrel-rodent thought most times the crafty critters escape up a tree right quick that dog cannot climb. As Darwin has arranged, at times the critters get confused by the sight of a 75 pound dog bounding towards them and what has to be terror at such a sight. It’s not a pretty picture. Just go with me here, the rodents caught by the dog end up…well, dead. They do not live to reproduce other squirrel-rodents so vulnerable to enraged dogs protecting their yards.
THIS baby squirrel had a guardian angel, who would be me. For as soon as I saw the little thing and even though I knew it would likely grow up to invade my bird feeders like they always do,( and never believe that line about a bird feeder being squirrel proof for there is not such thing), I grabbed the dog by the collar before she noticed the rodent and yelled “DOG” loudly. Propelled no doubt by some instinct caused by loud human voices, the youngster scrambled up the tree and I must imagine the little guy returned to its litter mates warning them of big creatures outside of the nest with black faces, huge wet noses, and teeth that can tear you apart.
My Medicare/SS rant comes as a result of watching California candidate for Senator, Carley Fiorina being interviewed by Fox’s Chris Wallace yesterday. Normally Wallace is a pretty fair interviewer but he was determined to force Fiorina into taking a stand on dealing with “entitlements” such as Social Security when Fiorina continually took a stance that she would first go after gubmint waste in efforts to lower California’s financial woes.
The Dems LOVE to back the Republicans back into a corner by getting them to suggest reductions in payments to old people so they can scream that the GOP is trying to kill Grandma.
I thought Fiorina was exactly right, though Wallace kept brow-beating her that since Reagan the congress has been trying to reduce gubmint waste, bloated bureaucracies and such and as Fiorina told him, well hell yeah and still we’ve got fraud, waste and abuse in gubmint, anybody doesn’t think so raise your hand. I got a bridge to sell real cheap for you folks.
Myself takes great exception to the word “entitlements” being used to define Social Security because, excuse me? For some 45 years the gubmint deducted 7.65% of my paycheck to pay for SS and Medicare and my employer matched every penny!
Do welfare or food stamp recipients have money deducted from their paycheck for the eventuality that such an “entitlement” might be needed for whatever reason? Do Medicaid folks pay in with a match for payment for medical care for lack of health insurance? How the hell is over 15% PAID IN by me an ENTITLEMENT?
Now I understand that there’s problems with SS/Med because a)the gubmint did NOT keep the money in a separate account like, say, the overseer of my husband’s 401-K did, b)people live a lot longer than they did when SS was first conceived and c)the cost of medical care has skyrocketed way beyond anything anybody could have envisioned.
There would not be such a great problem with SS pmts if the politicos had been a bit more responsible if and kept the payments made by me and my employer and allowed it to grow. As comparison, my husband’s contribution into his 401-K plan has increased via investment in bonds and the stock market, by 500%! As for Medicare, well the program wasn’t created until around 1965 or so and damn, you got lawyers will sue if the baby’s ugly, thus driving up the cost of Medicare astronomically.
As always, the Dems love to pit citizens against each other. Of late the mantra is that the younger workers now bearing the burden of paying for payments being made to the disabled/senior citizens will likely NEVER collect as this Ponzi scheme will eventually explode.
Again, if the money I contributed, along with my employers, had been saved and invested as wisely as, say, my husband’s 401-K, this would NOT be such a huge problem.
In short, IT’S NOT OUR FAULT! They took the money out of our paycheck and they spent it. Private companies are prohibited from being so careless but politicians, well…they needed the money and weren’t restricted by such as laws.
I’d also remind that George Dubya tried desperately to address the matter of the Ponzi scheme known as SS but did his Republican majority congress help him out? Indeed the Republican’s OWN GUY, the fine, fine reaching-across-the-aisle John McCain was all busy passing that stupid campaign finance reform that not a single American out here in la-la land cared about.
So now that SS/Med is looming for a big collapse that the poor young people today fear they’ll never be able to collect for what they pay from their paychecks….now what? It’s all the fault of the old people?
Still they use SS/Med as a political football. Had Fiorina said…well yeah, I think we should look at entitlements….meaning SS/Med….it would have given her opponent B. Boxer (PLEASE CALL ME SENATOR) sound bytes to bash her with because it’s how they do, folks. Never mind, just throwing it there, actually FIXING THE PROBLEM.
Nah. Let’s use the issue to get me re-elected.
BLAME IT ON GRANDMA! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
ABC’s “No Ordinary Family”-One Big Issue Totally Overlooked
Below, how this show’s executive producer describes this series.
being extraordinary." - Jon Harmon Feldman, co-creator/executive producer"To me, it's a show about a family that is repaired in the unlikeliest of ways, whose new abilities allow each family member to feel special in ways each of them always wanted to, yet perhaps never thought possible. It's a show about the blessings and burdens of
I’ve watched this show a couple of times now. It does enjoy a great time slot, at first following ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and now right before that hit show. ABC does like to introduce new shows by giving them this advantage, so okay, nothing wrong with this.
I do not enjoy this show at all, finding every plot line so far totally implausible. Plus there’s one very important element that is the elephant in the room that the show does not address at all.
The Powell family was an ordinary American family, dealing with daily life, puberty, busy working Moms and unfulfilled underemployed Dads. Lots of angst in other words, with Jim the Dad passively angry with his wife, Stephanie, for her wonderful career and employment success along with two normal adolescents complete with the problems this age group brings to the table. The Powell Mom is a scientist but she works so many hours that there’s not much left of her days to enjoy with the family.
So the Powells all decide to join Stephanie on a business trip to South America. Their plane crashes and dumps all passengers into the Amazon River.
That’s when the excrement hit the fan.
Dad became a super strong dude able to catch shooting bullets in mid-air with his hands. He also can jump real high and stop locomotives with his body.
Mom can now shoot her entire body in the wink of an eye from place to place, able to accomplish a day’s work in a single second.
Daphne, female adolescent, has the ability to hear the thoughts of others. JJ, male adolescent, suddenly becomes a math genius, able to guage at what angle to throw the football to hit the receiver downfield at precisely the right moment. He can also easily ace all school tests whereas he used to be a bit of a dim bulb.
All this from that amazing dip in the Amazon River.
The show’s story lines deal with this family, how they use their powers rightly to make the world a better place, or wrongly to improve their own lot in life.
The Powell adults have a few favored persons with whom they have shared the secrets of their powers, each co-workers, each using the powers of Stephanie and Jim to further their careers. Jim is a police sketch artists who moonlights as a superhero, capturing the bad guys with the help of a fellow employee. Stephanie has a female co-worker who is aware of her speedy powers and this duo wants desperately to figure out how these super powers came to be to…well make the world a better place I guess.
So far the Powell adolescents seem to be using their powers to find out where the happening school parties are or as a wedge to get on the football team toward fame, fortune and cheerleading babes we must assume.
The most unbelievable part of all this is….WHY DOESN’T THE ENQUIRER KNOW ABOUT THESE PEOPLE?
The Powells should be the stuff of world wonderment. They should be welcomed with open arms on The View and Oprah would have a show a day featuring a different Powell on each.
Yet we are to believe that Stephanie’s timid co-worker and Jim’s noble crime-stopper chum have not nor will NOT mention this wonder to anyone to avoid the publicity?
I read a blurb on the ABC site for this show that the show is meant to capture a younger viewing audience, perhaps comic-reading adolescents who dream of being able to read minds, or an even younger group that still believes in the wonder of Harry Potter.
Old ladies like me are entirely too jaded to be entertained by such implausibility.
And the show could very well attract such an audience. One can rest assured I’ll not watch it again because try as I did, I was tempted to scream out loud at these nutty Powell people that they could be freaking millionaires with all this talent, that they could have their own road show, that science businesses and entire health industries would have them name their price for the chance to investigate what’s going on inside of them.
Problem here is, not to state the obvious, the most likely audience for “No Ordinary Family” probably isn’t sitting around watching “Dancing With the Stars” and once again, we have a total disconnect.
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CBS’ “The Defenders”-Formulaic But Entertaining
CBS’ web site for this series.
This show takes place in Las Vegas and that locale alone provides story lines aplenty. One recent show was about a mega-bucks lottery winner who somehow ran through his millions in winnings to owe a casino ten million bucks. And the guy ended up prison as this viewer was jarred in the shock of knowing that the all powerful Vegas casinos somehow eliminated the silliness and absurdity of the notion of a debtor’s prison.
For if one is in jail than one can hardly pay off their debts which will leave one in jail….forever in a vicious legal circle that pretty much benefits no one.
The legal team of Morelli and Kaczmarek managed to pull off the salvation of this poor fellow by finding fallacies in the casino story of their innocence in getting the man to sign markers after getting him in a drunken state. The ending had the new but now poor millionaire going home with the casino saving face as needed in the gambling land of Las Vegas.
A more recent show has a senator accused of murdering his mistress. There is always another sub-plot going on which I prefer to the more boring straight line story. So the debonair Pete gets entangled with a female con artist while a senator admits to a crime he did not commit, doubtfully defended by Nick, with a very surprising ending I found most delightful.
Jim Belushi plays the part of Nick Morelli with Jerry O’Connell coming as the other half of the legal team of Morelli and Karczmarek. Both of these guys are veteran actors with the sort of faces that a viewers knows he or she has seen before but forgets just where.
Belushi is perfect in the part of the devoted defender of the downtrodden criminal while dealing with the emotional crush of his broken marriage and struggling to keep the relationship with his young son alive and vibrant.
Karczmarek is the man about town, handsome, debonair, magnet for the ladies.
It’s a good fictional team, dreamed up by a script writer and a formula that works well for an hour of fairly mindless entertainment, best when DVR’d for viewing on a nothing burger Saturday afternoon.
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”Dancing With the Stars Fall 2010”
I love this show, have loved it right from its first show. In fact, I have an entire Blog, HERE ,devoted to the show. Life and some medical maladies leave me watching and enjoying the series but without the slavish to devotion to scores and videos.
Here was a show that, initially, I would think was met with great skepticism. Like its main competitor for reality show greatness-“American Idol”- I suppose that someday its allure will begin to fade away. As of this year of our Lord, 2010, this most unlikely of shows is going strong, still with its same group of judges, and its audience grows across America’s fruited plains.
It has a lot of elements that appeal to Americans of the short attention spans, especially the females amongst us. Sitting and watching folks dancing on TV would seem, at first, a non-starter. Once upon a time a fellow named Lawrence Welk had dancers waltzing across the screen but “Dancing With the Stars” adds so much more.
First, it is a reality show and I’m a bit of a reality show junkee. Reality shows, indeed, do quite well here in America. Second, the selection of the dancing competitors adds so much intrigue to the formula. The formula is fairly steady by now. Must have someone “older”…this year Florence Henderson of “The Brady Bunch” filled that niche. Last year we had Cloris Leachman serving as representative for the Medicare bunch who wanted a dog in the race.
Must have a couple of athletes, at least one football player, always, and maybe another. This year we have Rick Fox the basketball star and Kurt Warner, the football guy. Football stars almost always make great dancers, something I find intriguing. Football is hardly the sport of namby-pamby metrosexuals but there is an art to footwork required to achieve first downs that translates very well to a Viennese Waltz.
There must always be at least one politician in the bunch. This year we have Bristol Palin, adolescent daughter of Sarah Palin, filling that slot. One year we had Tom Delay, former Speaker of the House and others of this sort of fame included an astronaut and political pundit.
It’s always good to include a star from a somewhat distant past. This year we had David Hasselhoff of “Baywatch” fame. In prior shows we’ve had both Donny and Marie Osmond in that role.
Since there’s always one older dancer on the list, there is required to have a very young type to balance the age factor. This year we have a Disney series star, Kyle Massey. Other years we had Apollo Ono and other Olympic athletes.
There’s always a few current but modestly known stars to flesh out the roster, and these are the sorts who will often win this thing. This year there’s Audrina Patridge and Brandy competing for the prize.
Getting a dancing slot on “Dancing With the Stars” is a ticket to a revived career. Marie Osmond now touts weight loss for Nutra-system, Luc Laurent was a hottie at the time most well known for his naked part on the show “Sex in the City” now has a plumb roll on “Brothers and Sisters” after his stint on this series.
A couple of intriguing inclusions in this years roster also includes one of the worst dancers EVER, on this show-Michael Bolton, who really needs to stick to singing, Jennifer Grey, star of “Dirty Dancing” and riding on the recent death of her famous dancing co-star, Patrick Swayze, and a really weird fellow from some reality show from New Jersey known as “The Situation”.
ABC’s web site for this series.
Dancers left as of 10/22/10:
Audrina Patridge/Tony Dovalani, actress, famous for a steamy Carl Jr’s commercialBrandy/Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Star of “Cinderella”, award-winning singer”
Bristol Palin/Mark Ballas-daughter of former Vice President candidate-Sarah Palin
Jennifer Grey/Derek Hough-star of “Dirty Dancing”/daughter of singer Joel Grey
Kurt Warner/Anna Trebunskaya-Quarterback/St. Louis Rams
Kyle Massey/Lacey Schwimmer- star of Disney channel’s “Cory in the House”
Rick Fox/ Cheryl Burke –NBC champion/Los Angeles Lakers
Of the dancers left as of this writing, some thoughts:
Rick Fox is probably one of the handsomest dudes to ever dance on this show, bar none. He’s tall, well-muscled and real easy on the eyes. Don’t think he will win but he’s great to watch.
Kurt Warner seems to worry himself to death over his wife. He’s obviously a Christian man based on some his references. After he dances he’ll often run out to the audience and kiss his wife. He’d be a much better dancer I think if he weren’t so fretful.
Audrina Patridge is one to watch to win this thing. She’s pretty and dances well.
(NOTE….I bravely did NOT delete the above although Audrina was sent home on 10/26/10. Just to show what I know.
Brandy is a pretty young lady and another contender to keep an eye on. Her partner, Maksim, seems to have a reputation as being very disagreeable. Poor little Brandy, it looks the child struggles every week dealing with this tyrant.
Jennifer Grey dances very well. She’s no youngster and, in fact, to everyone’s surprise, ended up on the endangered list in mid-October. Her partner, Derek Hough, always seems to get one of the better/more famous dancers.
Bristol Palin is fun to watch but she’ll not likely win this thing. I consider her a mediocre dancer. Bristol doesn’t present as enjoying herself when she dances.
Kyle Massey is an interesting, engaging guy. He’s a bit on the chubby side and not the most graceful fellow to ever cross that famous floor. But he’s funny, personable and genuinely seems to enjoy himself during the dance. He’ll not win but he’s a joy to watch.
I’d put Rick Fox up as a dark horse to win this contest but by me, it’s going to be either Audrina or Brandy.
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A Brain Infection? A Medical Journey Surpassed by Few
A Medical Odyssey to a Quadruple Heart Bypass
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