Oblivious

I just got a CD in a cardboard case. No, it wasn’t available as a download and I like a more persistent storage medium anyway. For some reason I wondered about the cost savings that motivated the packaging choice. Then I realized that I have allowed myself to become conditioned to the plastic CD cases with their insanity inducing plastic wrappers and adhesive seals. The cardboard ones come with a simple shrink-wrap cover, so what’s not to like about that?

You know what else? Albums came in cardboard, including the original version of this one, and I never thought that was weird.

Gah

Man, I forgot how much these stress tests take out of me.

Venting

About all I can think of to sum up how I feel at the moment is $@&!. No, it’s not about the state of the economy or the appalling condition of politics in the country. This time it’s personal.

Today I had myself measured, sonically probed, tested, stressed and probed some more. No irradiation this time. Technically the results were good and I should be happy. The problem is I still have an electrical problem with my heart.

Not the cardiologist or any other doctor I have mentioned this to thinks it’s a big deal. Unfortunately I do.

I know that I should be happy with the overall state of my health. I handled the test pretty well and the results, especially considering my condition, were encouraging.

But I am very depressed at the moment. That’s why I’m here venting. I am pissed. I don’t know why this happened – neither does anyone else. Whether this is the result of my illness or some medication or would have happened anyway doesn’t really matter. However it happened there is nothing that I can do about it.

So I’m depressed.

I am also alive and relatively healthy. I could be much worse off. I just can’t get past this yet. I was hoping that a change in medication would make this condition go away but it didn’t. Nothing is worse, but nothing is better. In fact, as I said, I handled the test pretty well and the cardiologist said the results were good. I was actually very nervous before this test for no really good reason and then it went well. My heart performed well under the stress and the doctor didn’t recommend any treatment, just come back in the fall. Of course I used to see him once a year and now it’s twice.

What’s also not helping is that I am exhausted – I mean I’m having trouble just standing up and walking across the room. I am also sore, and tomorrow I will be in even more pain. My legs are not happy with me, my lungs are tired, my heart is glad that it’s over and in general my body is wondering what the heck just happened. And my brain is frazzled.

Oh, and my chest already itches.

Things could be worse and eventually I will see that is true. I will see just what my life is like and realize that I could be in much worse shape. I am alive. However healthy I am, I am still alive. I should be happy with how the test turned out, and I will be. It’s just going to take some time.

Have pity for my poor wife who has to deal with me when I’m like this.

Hope I make it through the week

I’m finally catching up with my doctor appointments, but the effort is catching up with me. I had to cancel so many appointments when I was sick, and then sick again, that it’s taken till now to make headway. I have a certain amount of trouble getting back on track, plus it takes time to get in to see some of these doctors.

Next up is a stress test and then, if the cardiologist OKs it, an exercise pulmonary function test.

Then I have to see four or five new doctors for various things, maybe some more physical therapy, and definitely some tests. The fun never ends.

I saw my primary doctor today and we figured out that I got both of the viruses that were going around in June. Lucky me.

It's that time again

Today is Call In Sick and Never Go Back to Work Day.

I'm not sure how you're supposed to celebrate.

Get rid of the debt ceiling

I'm convinced that there really are some people who want the economy to explode just so that afterwards they can pick up only the few pieces that they like.

How many halves are there?

I saw a headline about some aspect of how the other half lives.

You know, it’s really how the top 2% live. Wealth isn’t split 50-50 in this country. I think the belief that it was is what caused our current problem.

It’s hard to disbelieve the aphorisms you were raised with, but I think people are finally starting to see the truth.





Yes, I know that it’s also true that people want to think that they are better off than they really are and also want to have hope that they will be very successful some day. Trust me, I know the feeling, I live with it every day.

But the misperception of wealth is enforced by societal sophistries that cause much more harm than simple faith does. We should hold to faith but speak the truth even though it hurts. Without knowing where we are we can’t know what to aspire to.

No anchovies? I'm sorry, I spell my name...

I just wanted to say that there should be pizza delivery 24 hours a day.

Carry on.

Short-sighted and just plain wrong

Here’s the short version of the rant I first wrote.

The debt ceiling will be raised but there will spending cuts and no tax increases or loophole closures. That is the way the people who run this country want it to be.

That is not what the majority of Americans want, it is not the right thing to do and it will not help the economy.

This will happen because the people in charge in Washington want spending cuts – Republicans and Democrats, Congress and the White House. It will hurt a lot of people, but the politicians have decided that this is the best way to get re-elected. They may be right. The problem is, politicians aren’t elected to get re-elected, they’re elected to do the best damn job they can do to help the country.

If all they did was raise the debt limit and allow the current tax cuts to expire the deficit will go down. It will do so slowly, but it will go down. With no spending cuts. But Washington is in love with spending cuts because they think it makes them look all grown up and serious. It’s despicable.

This is a great nation being ruined by small people.

I hope that I am wrong. I hope that something changes.

Borders and bookstores

I love books – printed on paper and bound together hold in your hand books. I am very discouraged that Borders is closing. They couldn’t get an investor who could outbid the liquidator so all remaining Borders stores will close starting most likely this Friday. They are expected to be completely out of business by the end of September.

There is a seeming contradiction in that people who like book stores did not like the idea of Borders and Barnes & Noble dominating the bookselling business but they will also bemoan the loss of Borders. It’s because of a love of diversity and options and also that any loss of book stores is a bad thing.

I wonder if this may, in a strange way and my wildest dreams, possibly lead to a good thing. There is now a dearth of book stores – well, there always was – as the Borders stores close. Presumably those areas are now underserved. From what I’ve read it was bad business decisions that led to the downfall of Borders, not a lack of customers. So, could this be an opportunity for independent book stores to move in, fill the vacuum and succeed?

I’d love to think that this was possible. I may not be optimistic enough to believe it completely, but I am optimistic enough to think that it’s a good opportunity. If I had the money I’d try it myself.

Of secrets and food

There’s this secret dinner party. Well, it’s not secret. Everyone knows it happens and the city sort of just looks the other way. But the guest list is secret and so is the location. Yet 10,000 people attended the last one.

It’s called the Dîner en Blanc, the Dinner in White, and it happens in Paris each year. You can read about it here. There is one planned for New York City, with some modifications and not quite the same class distinctions.

The headline worked, because it made me want to know how 10k people keep a secret and just what the secret was – and obviously it was no longer a secret so, what gives. So I read the article and I was fascinated that something like that could be pulled off. It’s an intriguing idea. But as I read the article I realized that it wasn’t that unusual. At least it wasn’t unique. I know of something similar. I’ve even been there.

I’m not really sure I should give many details here, but I can say that I know of something like this, though it is much more casual. OK, it is extremely casual and it only slightly resembles this dinner. Actually, the dinner resembles it because the dinner is of more recent creation. One thing they have in common is a strange type of secrecy.

Somewhere in one of the 50 states there is a party held every year. People show up on a certain day, which is fixed, though the time is flexible as it is an all day, ongoing party. You bring whatever food you want to eat and to share and everyone partakes of whatever is brought. Meals are not set and seating is random.

The cool part is, if you know about the party you’re invited. It may not draw 10k people, but it is a more or less open invitation party and lots of people do show up. And it’s a secret, sort of. It’s also been going on for at least 30 years.

This and the dinner mentioned in the article have a few other things in common. The concepts of bringing food and seating and tables apply, as does the policy of cleaning up after yourself. But far from being fancy dress white this is more of a hippie cookout – tie-dye is more likely than tuxedo. Shorts and t-shirts are the order of the day and the food is pot luck, unpretentious and very good. There is a large portion of protein provided by the host, all else comes with the guests, as does the entertainment. There are few rules, no formality and lots of mingling and talk, music, some dance and even fireworks.

It’s a party.

I haven’t been able to attend in many years, but it’s pretty cool.

I wonder where else this sort of thing happens? How many open secrets are there in the world? How many dinners and dances and cookouts and parties happen all around us that we know nothing about, but would know if we just happened to stumble on them? There is magic in all of this. Everyday human magic, but no less potent for that. Humans can think up some pretty interesting ways to get together and have fun.

Nothing new

Just for the record, everything that I say about Medicare and Social Security and taxes was my position before I got sick and would be the same were I to somehow make a full recovery and/or be a billionaire.

My position just gives me personal insight into how some of this works.

Watch those skies ...

or

Can we have some 20-20 foresight for a change?


OK, I won’t go on about how science is denigrated in this country and research is underfunded. I won’t go on about how we’re canceling programs and killing a space telescope that is almost finished. I’ll only briefly mention that NASA’s budget is being cut for what the scientists need but kept for what politicians want for their home districts.

And I’m sure you’re all aware that Friday saw the final launch of the Space Shuttle and there is no replacement even in the planning stages. This country has no manned spaceflight vehicle. If we want to get into space we have to hitch a ride with someone else.

Is anyone proud of this?

We are ceding scientific leadership to the rest of the world. That is not what a great nation does.

But instead of focusing on that I want to ask a question: who read science fiction in the 60s and 70s?

When the government doesn’t want to invest in manned space exploration it’s left to people who see a profit in it. That would probably mean mining the asteroid belt. Remember what happens if belter miners get upset?

When you have all the equipment needed to run mining operations in space you also have everything you need to drop an asteroid out of orbit and send it towards the Earth.

Can we get some more funding for NASA, please? I’d like some pure exploration in space that doesn’t end up dropping a huge rock on my head.



By the way, NASA has shown a profit for the country. Beyond employing thousands of people, if memory serves the Apollo program returned something like $600 into the economy for every $1 spent. Though I believe that we need to explore for the sake of knowledge not just profit. Besides, we don’t know where the next discovery will lead until we make it, and we’ll never make it if we’re too cheap to pay for it.

By limiting our vision we limit ourselves.

Reality

This is not a plea for sympathy, I’m just using myself as an example because I know the numbers. This is an explanation of how people find themselves living at the whim of others. A position I often see taken against Social Security and Medicare is that people should have the sense to save for the future.

Now, aside from the obvious problem that many people don’t earn enough to save let alone retire, there are other possibilities.

I was 46 when I got critically ill and almost died. Did you have enough saved for retirement at 46? I don’t mean enough to retire after 20 more years of work, I mean enough to retire at 46 and then live off of for the next 30 years or more.

So, I got sick at 46, I can’t work, I had 6 months at 40% pay (a benefit I appreciated, but not a way to get rich), I had a year where I had no money at all coming in (my insurance company didn’t believe my doctors), now I am dependent on various forms of insurance (that I paid for) that give me about the same amount as I made in the early 90s. I also have medical expenses that are more than 3000% higher than they used to be – that is not an exaggeration.

My out of pocket medical expenses are just over 28% of my income. That’s with two forms of decent insurance. Is it a surprise that people go bankrupt because of medical debt?

By the way, when I got sick it cost $1.3 million dollars to save my life. Does anyone honestly question a need for good insurance for everyone?

I haven’t given up trying to find a way to get back to some form of work, but I may not be able to and there are people who are in worse shape than I am.

Social Security and Medicare are called social safety nets for a reason. Sometimes, no matter how well you plan, illness and accident and age will catch up with you. My wife got cancer, was hit by a reckless driver and can’t work. I got sick and almost died and can’t work. Who can plan for that?

Do you know what your health will be like when you reach 65 or 70 or 80 – or tomorrow?

Are you ready for anything like this in your life?

Revenue vs spending

Say you’re married and then have a couple of kids. It’s nothing extravagant, it’s just life.

But when your family grows your cost of living rises. So what do you do? You don’t adjust the family budget by deciding who doesn’t get to eat. You don’t reduce spending on necessities. You don’t want to stop going to the doctor but you might have to. What you do is cut costs on luxuries and you look for ways to make more money.

The US has the lowest tax rates as well as the lowest revenue as a percent of GDP since the 1950s.

But we also have twice the population.

Cutting services is the wrong way to go. We need to increase government revenue. This would not hurt the economy (look at the history of this country for the proof). There’s a lot of money out there that is essentially just sitting around. And that money wasn’t magically created by the top 2% of the population. That wealth is generated by all 300 million of us and it needs to be used to support all 300 million of us.

It’s always been about the money

The reason they keep talking about Social Security is because the money in the trust fund has been borrowed by the Federal Government over the past 10 – 15 years. If they don’t kill Social Security they know they’ll have to pay off the loan and the only way to do that is to raise taxes.

They don’t want to raise taxes. They don’t want to repay the money. They want to steal it.

Well, some people are just ideologically opposed to Social Security, but for the rest …

Forget the chained CPI, it hurts now

There has been no Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security in 3 years. All the talk about changing the way the cost of living is calculated fails to mention that. People on Social Security don’t have to wait for it to get worse.

On top of that Medicare premiums have increased – and that comes out of your Social Security payment.

People on Social Security also got a tax increase last year. The Making Work Pay tax credit applied to some people on Social Security. The so-called payroll tax holiday doesn’t apply to people on Social Security. So 2010 saw a tax hike for people on Social Security.

Everyone on Social Security is already paying more while trying to get by on a fixed income, though in reality it’s a shrinking income.

I sure hope those billionaire hedge fund managers don’t have trouble getting by.



Did I mention that Social Security doesn’t contribute to the deficit? Cutting benefits won’t cut the deficit by one penny.

Medicare

Currently the average couple on Social Security pays about 10% of their income for Medicare premiums. Proposed changes would make that closer to 30% for private insurance instead.

In my area, if they will sell it to you and there are no pre-existing conditions to get in the way, health insurance for a couple at retirement age will cost you $18,000 a year for a policy with a $2,000 deductible.

The new plan proposed to replace Medicare will give that same couple just under $12,000 to buy that $18,000 private insurance policy (which sends more tax dollars to private companies).

The average Social Security income for a couple is less than $22,000 a year.

That means after they buy insurance and pay their deductible (22 + 12 – 18 – 2), a couple will have $14,000 left over for everything else. That everything else includes, among other things, food, shelter, heat, co-pays and co-insurance. That’s assuming they don’t get sick. Take my wife and me as an example. We get more than that average. Still, for us, basic non-discretionary living costs and high out-of-pocket medical expenses mean that we would have about $6,000 a year to live on.

Can you live on $6,000 a year? How about after 15 years of inflation?

Please understand that cutting Medicare or Social Security isn’t about balancing a budget, it’s about people’s lives.

Current Events

I’ve been sick and I haven’t been posting much. I wrote some things a while ago and didn’t post them because I didn’t want to stay on a political path exclusively. Recent news about deficit talks and cutting Social Security and Medicare has changed my mind.

So there will be a few things posted about politics and peoples’ lives.

Let’s start now.

You know that 51% of the US public that doesn’t pay federal income tax some people like to talk about? They don’t pay because they don’t make enough to hit the lowest tax bracket. They’re poor.

And they do pay payroll taxes and sales taxes and gas taxes and local taxes and fees.



Now some more.

IN CONGRESS. July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold the Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that when any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Rights of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.