Scattered Thoughts . . .

Late last night I read another article stating that this new 'Cut, Cap and Balance' legislation will also eliminate some tax loop-holes that have been used and abused for years.  That is good news, but it is not enough to correct this current budget problem nor does it make up for "cutting and capping" programs allowing those in need to survive.  The cuts they have approved which impact the poorest, disabled, and neediest still overshadow any good whatsoever and are a terrible crime. The article also mentioned that no tax rates under this new legislation will be above 29%...  I bet those with the money to pay will not be paying anywhere near 29%!  Only those making little money, with no deductions, no exemptions will be paying that.  So, it will be those whom cannot afford to pay 29% (single guys with no dependents with new, relatively low-paying jobs) that will more than likely be paying 29%.  Wouldn't it be more effective to...

Well...   it appears as though the worst case scenario is happening just as I suspected.  The House passed legislation approving a revised national budget which they are calling "Cut, Cap and Balance".  Here is a quote from an Associated Press article written by David Espo: "It calls for deficit cuts of slightly less than $4 trillion over a decade and includes steps to slow the growth of Social Security payments, cut at least $500 billion from Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs and wring billions in savings from programs across the face of government." As I stated in my previous posts, deepening cuts in our budget will only worsen our economy.  Worse yet, a plan such as this...   making $4 trillion in cuts over a decade which affect mostly the needy and poor of our country by cutting and stagnating Social Security payments, and cutting Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs...  is reckless, dangerous and will result in far bigge...

After a few discussions with friends about my previously written article posted here, I feel I should probably clarify a few things about my proposed National Emergency Tax Plan.  The purpose of my proposal to first eliminate salaries and benefits of our elected officials on Capitol Hill as well as the pensions and benefits of those 'retired' from Capitol Hill is actually twofold. First, I feel it would be nice if, for a change, our elected officials on Capitol Hill felt some of our pain.  They always seem to be quick to cut programs affecting others, especially those in need, so it would be nice if they felt the pain for a change. If our federal government defaults on it's financial responsibilities in August, it is due to the ineptitude, ignorance and arrogance of our elected officials on Capitol Hill.  If they can't do their jobs effectively and efficiently enough for the United States to pay it's financial obligations, then we should first dip into Cap...

It looks as though Capitol Hill will again screw the poor of this country early next month. Those affected the most will be seniors, disabled and veterans. These three social groups depend heavily upon their Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid. All three of these social programs are scheduled to be halted by mid-August due to the complete and utter ineptitude, ignorance and arrogance of our elected officials on Capitol Hill. The short story is that our national budget is a big mess. It was a relatively minor mess before going to war and now we are heavily engaged in multiple theaters increasing our national debt much more quickly. By the way, these same inept, arrogant elected officials for years said we would never be involved in more than one theater at a time. Anyway, whether we agree on the reasons for being involved in these theaters (which really is based upon classified info anyway, so it is not for discussion here) is irrelevant. The fact is we ARE involved and we ...

As most of you know, the past couple of months I have been actively working on getting an art and photography website up and running. I have recently had quite a few people express an interest in purchasing my art so I knew it was time to finally make that possible with a website. I always felt this was a good idea but I was focusing on building a portfolio first. I have built up my portfolio so now it is time to make some of my work available. Well, between my health issues and problems with actually implementing my plan, this is all really wearing me down. I can't help but wonder whether all this effort will be worth it in the end. Let's start with my latest problems in implementing my plan. I think this latest problem is probably related to the current state of our economy. Some of the major vendors I had lined up are no longer providing the services I need. They seem to be streamlining their business for mainstream customers only. (Edit:  Mainstream customers = 'custom...

This weekend has been rather uneventful.  My health was quite lousy for half the weekend (actually, it was quite miserable for half the weekend) so that affected my productivity, and it affected our fun! We did manage to get a little bit of yardwork done today.  The weather was nice so it was really nice to be outside. We had planned to meet Frank and Christine in town on Saturday but we had some Comcast modem problems that turned out to be more involved than anticipated.  Needless to say, we never made it into town. We lost internet and telephone service on Friday evening and decided to call it in to see if perhaps it was a problem in the neighborhood or with our service.  Turns out it was a problem with our service.  The customer service rep worked with us for about a half hour trying to reset and reboot the modem so it would finally work again but it didn't work.  The rep said she would have someone come to swap out the modem for us....

As some of you already know, I was down in Boston for a short hospital visit with my specialists a few weeks ago.  These doctors are the best in the world for my illness and they recently opened the first clinic in the US that is geared specifically to Mastocytosis.  Anyway, while we were down there a few weeks ago, a few different tests were ordered.  We opted to avoid the tests while in Boston for two reasons.  The first reason is there is usually a fairly long wait at the lab.  Considering this, it would be much easier to just have the tests done by my primary care physician at home.  The second reason I avoided the tests in Boston was because the tests take a lot out of me.  Just the four hour drive to and from Boston wears me out considerably.  That alone would knock me down.  Add these tests into the mix and the drive back home is quite lousy.  So, we arranged to have all my testing done with my primary care physician this t...

Well, today will be a down day.  My health crashed last night.  It came on rather suddenly too.  Thankfully we were home at the time. All of a sudden I had gastro-intestinal pain, nausea, dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing...  I spent a long time in the bathroom holding down vomit while it was coming out the other end, over and over.  I was fighting loss of consciousness until my heart responded causing an excessively high heart-rate to make up for a severe drop in blood pressure. I knew then that it would be a long night and that today would not be much better.  I certainly do not feel I can wander any further than a matter of feet from the bathroom. The biggest problem with this situation last night was that I made a beeline to the bathroom without grabbing my medications, including my epi-pen.  I had already changed into my bedtime clothes so my emergency meds were next to the bed in my pants pockets.  I will...

I am so far behind in managing my websites that I am finding it quite overwhelming.  My health has been so poor over the past four months that I have fallen behind in everything.   I have a piano website that is in desperate need of editing.  I have an art and photography website that needs so much work that it is not even operational at this point.  And, to make matters worse in how I feel about falling behind, I have a lot of friends whom are really looking forward to seeing this art and photography site.  I happened to make some headway on my art and photography website last night and this morning.  I hope to have that website up and running, with a working shopping cart, within the next week or two.  Of course, I have said this before...  Not only have I fallen way behind in managing my websites, but I am also feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the house repairs/renovations we need to squeeze into our short summer season.  I h...