Friday, October 14, 2011

Fiive steps to follow when writing to your elected officials..

QUOTE from Albert Einstein: "I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, But pissing evryone off is a piece of cake."


The other day I got a letter from the LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS. I respect that organization as they are non-partisan and simply want the American people to get involved and participate in our American democracy by becoming educated about the issues and voting. I want to share the part of the letter that caught my attention. It read as follows:

THE STENGTH OF OUR DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON CITIZENS GETTING INVOLVED AND ENGAGING OUR GOVERNMENT. KEEP THESE 5 TIPS HANDY WHEN CONTACTING ELECTED
OFFICIALS.

1. Politicians aren't interested in the opinions of people who can't vote for them. Identify yourself as a constituent of the legislator you're contacting.

2. Whether writing or calling your legislators, focus on a SINGLE topic. You'll be more effective and receive a faster response.

3. Ask the legislator to take specific action, like supporting a piece of legislation. Ask for a written response that gives your legislator's position on the issue.

4, Make your points quickly and concisely to have a greater impact. And make sure it is confined to one page. They do not like to read 2-5 pages from any constituent.

5. When talking about an issue, it's best to use your own words.

The U.S. Capitol Switchboard is: (202) 224-3121

I've written to my legislators many times in the last 40 years. I always followed these five tips and they do work much better than being long and rambling. lEGISLATORS DO NOT HAVE TIME TO READ LONG ONES.


HUMOR for today: Ever wanted to insult someone in terms wittier than "He's a jerk"? Then feel free to try these classic examples. (From the Reader's Digest)

1.While he was not dumber than an ox, he was not any smarter either. (James Thurber)

2. He had a mind to fine that no idea could violate it. (T.S. Eliot on Henry James)

3. Some folks seem to have descended from the chimpanzee later than others. (Kin Hubbard)

4. He is the only genius with an IQ of 60. (Gore Vidal on Andy Warhol)

5. The problem with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech. (George Bernard Shaw)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

How Stupid Can People Be?

QUOTE from Arne Garborg: " It is said that for money you can have everything, but you cannot. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; knowledge, but not wisdom; glitter, but not beauty; fun, but not joy; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; leisure, but not peace. You can have the husk of everything for money, but not the kernel."


Yesterday I wrote about a man named Carlos (Charles) Ponzi. He is the 1920s man whose legacy was to give his name to what we call today, The Ponzi Scheme. As I was perusing the latest AARP Magazine I read an article entitled, Fraud Alert - Our Own Worst Enemies. It was the story of 21st century Americans who have been defrauded of their life's savings by investing in Ponzi Schemes.

The one couple in the article that caught my attention was a North Carolina couple who turned over all the money they had saved for retirement to a Ponzi Schemer. The amount of money was $700,000. They are the reason I entitled my post today as, "How Stupid Can People Be?"
Their names are Gail and Gary Kepley and the Ponzi guy's name is Sidney Hanson of Charlotte, North Carolina. Here's how the story goes.

The Kepeys had saved $700,000 for their retirement nestegg. They were looking for a safe place to make some good interest. They had gone to a Chamber of Commerce meeting and learned about a financial planner named Sidney Hanson. When the Kepleys met Hanson they saw a balding, heavyset 60-year-old who wore wire-rimmed glasses and a business suit. As they walked into his impressive office in Charlotte he was flipping a silver dollar. Hanson told the Kepleys he came from humble beginnings in West Virginia but had found riches for his clients by investing in precious metals and foreign currency. He also gave them a sheet of references, a list of names that included local pastors. Then he handed them the silver dollar.

"He said he was a devout Christian whose joy in life was to return those blessings that poured out on him to others," said Mrs Kepley.

The churchgoing Kepleys were hooked. Four months later, the Salibury, NC, couple turned over their entire nestegg - the contents of their IRAs, their daughter's college fund, and their savings - to Hanson's company, Queen Shoals, LLC. All $700,000 of it.

Several months later, in May, 2009, the Kepleys were stunned to discover that agents from the securities division of the NC Secretaty of State had raided Hanson's office. They discovered his investment business was actually a Ponzi Scheme, one that had scanned more than 300 people out of $33 million. Hanson pled guilty and is serving 22 years in federal prison.

Gary Kepley died last year from a stroke. His wife, Gail, said he was a totally destroyed man from losing everything they had worked for all their life.

I have several thoughts about this story. I think my title is appropriate for the Kepleys. How can you be so stupid as to put your entire life's savings into one pot at the age they were. Why didn't they do some more investigating and diversify their nestegg or leave it where it was. Not only were they stupid but they were naive and greedy. Like I said yesterday, "If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is." Like Sidney Hanson mankind has always had and will always have people who are greedy, love money above everything else and have no conscious.

HUMOR for today: Any woman can have the body of a 21-year-old as long as she buys him a few drinks first.

Monday, October 10, 2011

I got CURIOUS about the Ponzi Scheme founder.

QUOTE from Josh Billings: "It ain't so much trouble to get rich as it is to tell when we have got rich."

I got CURIOUS. When I heard Rick Perry say that Social Security was nothing but a Ponzi Scheme I got curious. I knew what a Ponzi Scheme was but I didn't know anything about a guy named Ponzi. So I Googled and found a few things about a guy named Ponzi.

Carlo )Charles) Ponzi was born in Lugo, Italy in 1882 and died in Brazil in 1949. Ponzi was an Italian immigrant who bilked millions of dollars out of thousands of hopeful investors in the 1920s, in what has since become known as a Ponzi Scheme. Ponzi arrived in the U.S. in 1903, then made his way to Montreal, Canada by 1908. After a jail term for forgery, Ponzi was arrested for smuggling aliens into the U.S. and ended up in a federal prison in Atlanta, GA. After prison he settled in Boston and worked as a dishwasher for years before coming up with a plan to get rich. In 1919 he formed the Securities Exchange Company promising financial success by converting postage coupons into U.S. currency. Ponzi promised returns too good to be true. And they were: early investors were paid off with money from new investors; there was no real investment going on, just cash distribution. (The approach is also known as a "pyramid scheme.") Beginning in late 1919 and early 1920, Ponzi moved as much as $15 million from thousands of investors; eventually using 35 branch offices. The scheme fell apart eight months later and Ponzi was convicted of embezzlement and sent to prison for five years. His legal troubles dragged on for more than a decade and he was in and out of jail in the U.S. until 1934, when he was deported to Italy. He worked briefly for Benito Mussolini and then landed a job running asn airline in Brazil, where he died destitute in 1949.

I did some more research on Ponzi Schemes and found out the early investors were rewarded as promised but the later investors were the ones who never had a chance to make money as their money was being used to pay the early investors. Another thing I learned is that the early investors were so happy with the interest they were getting paid that most all of them would reinvest the earnings and end up losing it all anyway when the company collapsed. Their have been many of these Ponzi Schemes,the most recent and famous is the Bernie Madoff rip-off. Their were several of Madoff's investors who committed suicide after losing millions.

There is a whole lot of truth in the words, "If it looks too good to be true, it most likely is." MONEY and GREED have screwed up the lives of a lot of people throughout the history of this world.

HUMOR for today: Some people because smile they don't know the heck is going on.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

How the Marine's view the Army.

QUOTE from fro Albert Einstein: "As long as there are sovereign nations possessing grear power, war is inevitable."


Yesterday I had the privilege of talking to a real gung-ho U.S. Marine. He had served two deployments to Iraq from 2005 to 2007. He was in the thick of things in the battle for Ramadi.

I asked him what the Marine's had to say about the Army guys. His answers made me have a good laugh. He had two answers:

1. To a Marine the word Army means, "Ain't Ready (for) Marines Yet.

2. And #2 is, "Ain't Real Men Yet."

He told us that his HumVee hit an IED and the vehicle flew in the air and tipped over. He was the only one to be wounded. He said, "As we were driving down the highway I had a feeling we were going to hit an IED. So instead of sitting upright in my seat I slipped down in my seat as I had this knot in my stomach telling me we were going hit one. Sure enough, in a few seconds our HumVee was flying in the air."

He was knocked unconscious by the noise of the exploding IED and he got some scrapnel wounds. He felt that the thing that saved his life was his slipping down in his seat at the last second. Most of the scrapnel went over his head. He said his battalian lost 14 men in his two tours.

He also said his Mother was watching FOX news one night and they were showing Marines sweeping through this town and the Marines were busting doors down to make entry to the homes of suspected terrorists. The guy busting down the door was him, Brandon Yeisley, of Springville, Iowa. His Mom recognized him right away. What a shocker for Mom.

He was fun to talk to and very open about what he did over there. He got out of the Marines and then decided he liked the USMC so much that he volunteered to go back in. They wouldn't take him back because they had their limit. I'd say the Marines made a mistake by not taking back a dedicated gung-ho man like this.

HUMOR for today: Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Extreme Couponing

QUOTE from Neil Simon: "Don't listen to those who say you're taking too big a chance. (If he had), Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor."

I've been reading the latest issue of TIME Magazine. This was a special money issue and I've read some pretty enlightening stuff. What I want to share today is what I LEARNED about those folks who are into couponing big time. TIME interviewed a lady named Shannon Shaffer who is an extreme couponer. They wrote an article about Shannon to illustrate what serious couponig can do for the grocery budget.

Shannon takes five hours to plan her shopping trips and two more to actually complete the shopping. She has cut her weekly shopping budget for her family of three from $250.00 to $50.00. On the shopping trip in which TIME went with her, here are the results.

She bought 92 total items.
Total retail cost was $293.82.
Amount paid was $38.04. (A savings of $255.78.)
Coupons used - 76.
Hours in the store - 2.5.
Fights with management - 2.

Shannon, who runs a couponing site called For the Mommas, says any family can use coupons to reduce their tab by 25% to 50%. "I can't figure out why people wouldn't," she says.

In 2009, consumers saved $3.5 billion redeeming 3.3 billion coupons - a 27% leap from 2008. "When the financial markets collapsed, people suddenly became very interested in coupons," says Todd Hale, senior VP of consumer and shopper insights at the Nielson Co. What started out as a cost-saving measure has spiraled into a craze, thanks in part to TLC's EXTREME COUPONING; housewives have been seen stealing newspapers and dumpster diving in pursuit of good deals. (I'd call dumpster divers some pretty serious couponers.)

With just Ruth Ann and I in the house I don't plan on getting into couponing. As we've aged we eat less and we eat more and more fresh fruits and vegetables and less and less processed foods. Our food budget is very reasonable so I see no need for taking the time to coupon.


HUMOR for today: I have degree in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Don't believe all your emails

QUOTE from Juvenal: "Revenge is sweet, sweeter than life itself.
So say fools."


On Monday I received an email that read as follows:

--- The per person Medicare insurance premium will increase from the present monthy fee of $96.40, rising to: $104.20 in 2012; $120.20 in 2013; and $247.00 in 2014. These are provisions incorporated in the Obamacare legislation, purposely delayed so as not to 'confuse' the 2012 re-election campaigns. Send this to all seniors that you know, so they will know who's throwing them under the bus.---



As soon as I got it I said to myself that this has to be another lie about President Obama. So I went to 'snopes.com' and did some research - here is what I LEARNED.

THIS IS A LIE AND TOTALLY FALSE. President Obama does not have hidden in the Obamacare legislation anything resembling a $247 monthly Medicare premium in 2014.

So the TRUTH of the matter is as follows.

Currently, the PROJECTED Medicare Part B Premiums are:

$108.20 for 2012.

$112.10 for 2013.

$117.10 for 2014. - (it will not be $247.00 like this email said.)


SO MY MESSAGE TODAY IS BELIEVE NOTHING OR VERY LITTLE ABOUT THESE HATE EMAILS BEING CIRCULATED ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA. I HAVE RESEARCHED MANY OF THESE HATE EMAILS ABOUT OBAMA AND THEY ARE ALWAYS 95% to 100% FALSE.

So that is why I entitled my post today - Don't believe all your emails.
If you want to believe them at least go to snopes.com and research them to see how TRUTHFUL they really are - at least then you can make an intelligent decision as to believe or not to believe. The reader has to realize that these are being sent out by the Obama-haters and TRUTH is not a priority for them. They just want to see him get defeated in 2012 and they will do anything to try and make it happen.


HUMOR for today: Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.

Monday, October 3, 2011

The rest of the Hawkeye NFL players.

QUOTE: 'The only reason to look down on someone is to pick them up.'

Here are the rest of the Hawks in the NFL.

25. Seth Olsen, Colts - 6-4, 308. Third-year offensive lineman.
26. Allen Reisner, Vikings - 6-3, 255. Rookie tight end.
27. Matt Roth, Jaguars - 6-4, 275. Seventh-year defensive tackle.
28. Bob Sanders, Chargers - 5-8, 206. Eighth-year free safety.
29. Tyler Sash, Giants - Rookie defensive back.
30. Amari Spievey, Lions - 5-11, 195. Second-year defensive back.
31. Ricky Stanzi, Chiefs - 6-4, 228. Rookie quarterback.
32. Eric Steinbach, Browns -6-6, 295. Ninth-year offensive guard.
33. Jeff Tarpinian, Patriots - 6-3, 238. Rookie linebacker.
34. Julian Vendervelde, Eagles - 6-2, 300. Rookie offensive guard.
35. Casey Wiegmann, Chiefs - 6-2, 285. 16th-year center. (He actually played under Hayden Fry.)
36. Marshall Yanda, Colts - 6-3, 315. Fifth-year offensive guard. (He's from Anamosa, Iowa - a former student of mine.)

I originally said we had 33 players. I was wrong, we have 36.


HUMOR for today:
1. God must love stupid people; He made so many.
2. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
3. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.