Social Security ideas that make sense

No more Social Security at 62?

By Jennie L. Phipps · Bankrate.com

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Posted: 7 am ET

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The Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report Friday on the financial health of both the retirement and the disability trust funds.
The report projected that the retirement trust fund will be depleted in 2033 -- unchanged from last year's projection. It said that unless Congress acts, at that point the program will be able to pay only 77 percent of promised benefits from ongoing contributions. The disability trust fund will be depleted much sooner -- in 2016 -- when the program will be able to pay only 80 percent of promised benefits.
Other statistics from the report that you might find interesting include:

• More than 57 million people were receiving Social Security by the end of 2012.
• In 2012, approximately 161 million people paid payroll taxes on earnings covered by Social Security.
• The total money held in reserve by the program rose by $54 billion in 2012 to $2.73 trillion.
• The cost to administer the program in 2012 was 0.8 percent of total expenditures, a total of $6.3 billion.

A few days prior to this announcement, Donald Fuerst, senior pension fellow at the American Academy of Actuaries, testified before the U.S. Congress about Social Security's pending shortfalls. He said that in 1940, when the new Social Security Administration began paying monthly retired-worker benefits, the retirement age was 65. At that time, workers who survived to age 65 had a remaining life expectancy of 12.7 years for men and 14.7 years for women. By 2011, life expectancy at age 65 was 18.7 years for men and 20.7 years for women, an increase of six full years for both.
In 20 more years, life expectancy at age 65 for men is expected to be more than 20 years and more than 22 years for women, Fuerst pointed out.
The bottom line: If something doesn't change, we won't have enough money to pay the Social Security that is promised, a retirement planning disaster.
Fuerst offered Congress several suggestions for fixing this problem. His most controversial idea is probably raising the minimum age for collecting Social Security from 62 to at least 64.
Here's what he'd also do to make an increase in retirement ages less painful for workers:

• Gradually phase in any change over an extended period of years, even decades, to allow for more time for society to adapt to the new work-life reality. "Give people time to plan and prepare. You wouldn't want to change it for someone who was planning to retire the next year. None of us would consider that fair," Fuerst says.
• Reduce benefits for higher-paid workers. "Wealthier socioeconomic groups recently show more longevity improvements than poorer socioeconomic groups," Fuerst points out.
• Revise the Social Security disability program. Make the requirements more lenient for people between ages 62 and full retirement age, so those in occupations that involve physical labor wouldn't have to continue to work at jobs they couldn't physically do.
• Cut or eliminate the wage tax for both employers and employees for people between ages 62 and full retirement age. It would give an incentive to both groups to keep older workers on the job.

Will a plan this complex and drastic ever wend its way through Congress? Fuerst thinks it should, but he isn't optimistic. "It isn't going to be easy; there are too many competing interests," he says.

Obamaville

http://images.sodahead.com/blogs/000333561/obamaville_xlarge.jpeg

GMO Update

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks kick off

Talks are scheduled to last 9 months.

I give them a week, maybe a day.

The great debate: Chris Christie: Rand Paul ‘dangerous’

Paul Ryan is the new RINO

They are going to destroy this country. The bills they are proposing will destroy the Republican party. I can only assume they are being blackmailed by the powers that be.

Ryan is going to piece meal immigration reform in 5-6 bills and send to the Senate. Why? So, that border security can be placed in one bill. This will allow the Senate to approve amnesty without border security yet the Republicans will claim they voted for border security. It'sPURE BULLSHIT.

Book Review - The Shambhala Principle: Discovering Humanity's Hidden Treasure by Sakyong Mipham

I hesitate to post this because I doubt I could ever convince anyone here to read it. Be that as it may, I still think it's a pretty good book. Though I was raised Lutheran (more like indoctrinated), I have come to identify much more with a Buddhist outlook later in life. Conceptually, there are of course major differences between the two religions, not the least of which is that Buddhism is non theistic. In practice, however, there is considerable agreement between the two religions on what is and isn't appropriate conduct in daily life. For those more open minded, I think Buddhism has much to offer a Christian who is seeking to deepen or expand their spirituality and I've met more then a few practicing Christians at Buddhist programs I have attended. At a minimum, there is next to nothing in the more well known Buddhist teachings that in any way negates Christianity or any other religion. For what it's worth, though there is certainly a link to Buddhism in this book, this is not a book about Buddhism and as such, there is absolutely nothing in this book that confronts, challenges or denigrates any other religion.

In brief, the author of this book is the son of Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche who was a Buddhist monk who fled Tibet in the 50's. Without a doubt, CTR was an enigmatic/charismatic/controversial figure and was one of the teachers who was truly instrumental in establishing Buddhism in the west. His audience were the hippies of the 60's who were dissatisfied with the culture. Seeing Buddhism as an escape from that culture, they gravitated to Buddhism only to find that CTR ultimately taught them Buddhism and then told them they needed to go and re-engage the world. This doesn't remotely do justice to what CTR was about, but the salient point is that later in life, CTR  was teaching quite a bit about Shambhala teachings rather then straight Buddhism, and this is what his son has picked up and what is the basis of this book. Again, in very simple terms, the Shambhala teachings have at their core a tenant of basic goodness that is present in every individual and in society itself. Though the term enlightened society is used by both CTR and his son, this is not some drippy utopia nonsense. Rather, it is a challenge to respond to what is truly the best in us while also promoting the same in the world around us by carrying a certain attitude with us at all times.

For sake of comparison, the concept of basic goodness is very similar to the concept that God dwells within each of us and that there is a possibility of connecting with and even becoming that perfection. Likewise, the same exists in society around us. Now, this is not to negate God or Christianity. Some would likely consider the concept of God and enlightenment to be essentially the same thing. This book does not make that comparison, however, it doesn't give us the out that a deity of some kind will eventually show up and set things right if we just sit back and wait for that day. Instead, we need to do the work ourselves and we need to do it now. The basis for the work is that basic goodness not only exists, but is accessible by anyone at any time. To the extent that we strive to reach for and react with basic goodness is the extent to which we can live beyond perpetual fear and beyond committing perpetual acts of aggression to make ourselves feel secure.

To again be clear, this is not a book that preaches utopia, nor is it a book that attacks capitalism, theistic religion or anything else. What it does do is suggest that within each of us, there is an intrinsic nature that is high above any of those conceptions. To take this into the world, however, is not to go out and preach it, rather it is to live it, which is always much more difficult.

Anyone else care to share what they are reading?

Positive proof that the country is splitting apart

Have "leaders" become moot, where is the stand your ground leader of the past?

As I read and listen to the airwaves it is to see and hear the demise of greatness for the target of sameness.   The more you resist the dumbing down the more you are tryed and convicted as some kind of "nut job ". For the left the idea that we are free to be whatever and whomever we want to be is so scary they are willing to do and say anything to squash it before it becomes a battle cry.  (Think 1776)

Sameness is what "Big Brother" was all about. To force the free to be "like me".  But what is "me" now, has the identity of America been slaughtered?  An all too willing left that steals your hope to be different under the smokescreen of "being different" is ok.  As far as the population of free humans left on this planet, where are they, is there such a person or persons lurking in the slime in order to be overlooked by the ever zealous left?

The left pretends to be the party of everyone, gays, blacks, Hispanics, all those that are different in some from the right wingers.  Does the left realize they are the majority now and the right is the minority, or do they pretend to still be the oppressed party?

The tide is turning folks, the left is the multi headed monster now, sticking its collective nose into every free corner in order to control it, when 30 years ago they were the symbols of the collective cries of "let my people go"!  Now they are the snoops, now they are the control freaks, just look at what is happening, the scandals, all about controlling the right, the lies, the pure folly that "they" are somehow above the laws and can order folks to do whatever they have a whim for.

This isn't about gun control or birth control or any other MSM controlled blah, blah, blah.  No this is about ultimate control of all of us, our way or the highway stuff.  The endless coverups are in every corner of their collective lives, they truly think that they are entitled to quash freedoms "for the greater good".  Who's good?  That is the big question here folks, are (is) legislation to unleash the Hispanic voters (the tipping point in the last election) so they can shove Nanny laws like Obamacare down our collective throats day in and day out!

I need to tell you at this point that this rant is moot point, the battle has been fought and the verdict is in, whatever the left wants the left will get, by hook or by crook.  My twins are doomed to be controlled thinkers, they will hopefully attend college, hopefully on a scholarship, but really I have to tell you my daughter dreams of being a farmer...  Could she realize such a dream in a society of the left, would she be guided elsewhere, what of her freedom to dream?

What of our freedoms in general, the left is not about freedom, it is about control, I for one will fight with all my might to guide them to be free of such control(s) they will choose what they want to do, not be guided by some collective left wing trance and dance of "our way or the highway"

Weiner sexting scandal widens.

From Yahoo News:
 
NEW YORK — Anthony Weiner admitted that he exchanged sexual messages with at least three more women after a sexting scandal forced him out of Congress two years ago.
The revelation came as a new poll found the Democratic mayoral hopeful’s popularity has plummeted after he admitted that he continued to send salacious online messages to women who were not his wife as late as last summer.
A Wall Street Journal/Marist/NBC 4 New York poll found Weiner’s favorability number among registered Democrats in New York dropped from 52 percent in June to 30 percent in a poll conducted on Wednesday after the latest messages were made public. Fifty-five percent of Democrats now say they have an unfavorable impression of Weiner, compared to 36 percent last month.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also weighed in on Thursday, calling Weiner's behavior "reprehensible" and "disrespectful to women." Pelosi and other party leaders pushed Weiner to resign from Congress in 2011 after evidence of his sexting behavior first surfaced.
 "If they’re clueless, get a clue. If they need therapy, do it in private,” Pelosi, a Democrat, told reporters on Thursday.

The poll and Pelosi's criticism came as Weiner desperately tried to turn the page on the scandal that has enveloped his campaign since Tuesday, when he admitted at a press conference that he had continued to send sexual messages to strangers.

Book Review- Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman

Well, it should come as no surprise I would read this book. I had heard of it before, but had not decided to give it a whirl until this week when I had a little downtime on vacation in Chicago. Fittingly, I found a link where it was scanned in and therefore, free, which is as close to stealing as I will get. For those who don't know, Abbie Hoffman was a 60's radical and here is the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbie_Hoffman. Admittedly, I do not have an extensive enough knowledge of Hoffman to consider myself an authority on him, certainly not enough to feel I could do him justice in trying to describe him. That said, I knew enough about him in advance to have an idea of what this book would be about and I was in that kind of mood.

In the book, Hoffman describes in pretty solid detail multiple scams you can run to both stick it to the man and live for free. Some ideas are harmless and still in use today, like dumpster diving for food. There is a tremendous amount of food waste in this country and that hasn't changed since the writing of this book. While most would be really grossed out by the ideas that Hoffman suggests regarding food, I know that there are tons of "freegans" who live and subsist on the ideas Hoffman presents here. I would also add that they do this in a completely legal way. More about that later. While some ideas are harmless, others are outright theft and indeed, are calls for violence. Neither of which I agree with.

From food, to housing, to medical care, to travel, to use of dope (growing, buying and selling) to even entertainment and self defense, Hoffman covers quite a bit. Overall, this is a handbook of sorts for how to live in "the nation" of individuals who have rejected the principles of the United States of America and he constantly uses the spelling of Amerika for dramatic effect and of course, uses the term pig to describe the police. In passing, Hoffman touches on what it means to be part of "the nation", but perhaps by design, stays away from making the book an overt protest statement. You can feel a theme of course, but I also imagine that there was a prevailing attitude that if you don't get it, you don't belong in the scene.

While reading the book, I couldn't help but appreciate the stick it to the man attitude of some of the scams. Considering that probably 80% of the scams would not work today, they seemed almost quaint to me and as such, entertaining to read about. Today, there are "freegans" who live completely on what society throws away and while they probably reject our wasteful and oppressive society as much as Hoffman did then, they are not all seeking to bring an anarchist agenda to the rest of us. Some surely are, many are not. Later in the book, Hoffman discusses how to make bombs and use violence and that is when the book stopped being entertaining for me. I reject the violence.

Overall, I found a theme in Hoffman's words that echos what I hear from some groups today. He felt there was a relentless, oppressive tyranny that needed to be fucked with and ultimately laid to waste. He saw no separation between big business and government and as such, both were targets as were the pigs on the street who protected the establishment. Today, we have the Tea Party and the rhetoric I hear is the same. While the Tea Party types have yet to pull off the bombings of the weathermen, the constant rhetoric of watering the tree of liberty sounds a lot like what I absorbed reading this book. As time goes by, I keep feeling like the spirit, tactics and even language of the 60's radicals is being absorbed wholesale by many on the right.

Personally, reading this book made me realize I would not have made the grade as a true radical in the 60's. A central theme that has arisen in my life is that I reject concentration of power and oppression and believe that there should always be a counterbalance that keeps those in positions of power from establishing a comfortable and insulated base. This is why I can find plenty of areas of agreement with just about anyone regardless of their political views. On that score, I agreed with the spirit of what Hoffman was trying to do in writing this book. Still, at the point where you embrace violence, you become an oppressor. I believe we can do much better as a society.

Florida Nurse Terrorized by US Marshals in Warrantless Raid

It was a typical evening after work when Sarasota, Fl., resident Louise Goldsberry finished dinner and began to clean up.

The nurse, employed by the Sarasota Doctors Hospital, proceeded towards the kitchen sink to clean the dishes when she gazed out her window. Her gaze met the eyes of a man wearing a hunting vest who was aiming a gun directly at her face.

Goldsberry, understandably frightened, dropped to the floor and began screaming. Although in a panic, she managed to crawl her way into the bedroom to retrieve her weapon, a .38-caliber revolver she had purchased to provide comfort while living alone.

She maintained a concealed weapons permit for the firearm.

Craig Dorris, her boyfriend who worked as a manager for a security alarm company, heard her screams and tried to make sense of his girlfriend’s reaction when suddenly they both heard a man screaming to open the front door.

Louis Goldsberry
Photo: Facebook

The man, shouting obscenities, claimed to be a police officer and ordered them to open the front door.

Goldsberry wasn’t convinced. The man she saw through the window looked more like an “armed thug” than a police officer.

Luckily the boyfriend Dorris, was able to remain calm and request ID from the man, but the yelling continued and the man shouted, “We’re the f—- police; open the f—- door!”

Frightened, Dorris moved away from the door half expecting bullets to riddle through it.

Goldsberry, who had never been arrested before, wondered if they could really be police and if they would speak this way. She had no idea as to why the police would be trying to force their way into her apartment with their weapons drawn.

As the couple stayed huddled in the hallway, Goldsberry still clutching her weapon, watched in horror as the unidentified man pushed open the front door, which they swore had been locked.

A man crept around the corner aiming his weapon at them both and shouted, “Drop the f—- gun or I’ll f—- shoot you,” he ordered.

Goldsberry’s screams heightened, but Dorris studied the man who was now standing inside the apartment. He observed him holding a tactical shield for protection and decided he appeared to be well equipped enough to be police.

Dorris realizing that any minute the standoff could result in the death of both of them, began reasoning with the man, surrendering, raising his hands above his head and asking the man to step outside to talk.

After given permission, he moved towards the front door peacefully but was immediately grabbed and placed in handcuffs.

After being arrested outside, Dorris saw numerous men wearing vests with the words federal marshal strewn across them. Dozens of Sarasota Police officers flooded the scene, as well as some others that he couldn’t identify, which he found unusual since he often worked with police at his security company.

Dorris described it as a scene from the movie Rambo.

Dorris then yelled inside to his girlfriend that it was OK to drop the gun and come out. Paralyzed with fear, Goldsberry froze and shouted, “I’m an American citizen, you have no right to do this.”

The standoff continued for several more minutes before finally releasing her weapon onto the floor.

She was rushed by officers and quickly handcuffed.

The couple remained cuffed outside for the next thirty minutes while police searched their home without a warrant for a man they had never heard of and certainly never seen.

Finally they were released and the police left.

According to police, the man at the door was Matt Wiggins of the U.S. Marshal’s fugitive division.

When the Herald Tribune, Sarasota’s local newspaper, questioned the marshal he claimed they were searching for child-rape suspect.

Wiggins claimed they had a tip that the suspect, Kyle Riley, was inside the apartment complex, but admitted they had no specific information that indicated he was inside Goldsberry’s apartment.

Wiggins said when the people inside the apartment didn’t immediately open up, that gave them reason to believe they were harboring the alleged child rapist.

The U.S. marshal even had the audacity to say, “Nobody in the other units reacted that way.”

Tom Lyons, a reporter for the Herald Tribune countered, “Maybe none of them had a gun pointed at them through the window.”

Of course Wiggins didn’t seem to think that fact condoned the horrified woman’s behavior. He said he acted with restraint and didn’t like having a gun aimed at him.

“I went above and beyond. I have to go home at night,” said Wiggins.

Lyons argued, “She had a gun pointed at her, too, and she wasn’t wearing body armor and behind a shield.”

“She had no reason to expect police or think police would ever aim into her kitchen and cuss at her through her door to get in. It seemed crazy and she was panicked.”

Wiggins responded with, “We were clearly the police, she can’t say she didn’t know.”

“She does say so, actually,” said Lyons.

In an interview with Lyons the following day, Goldsberry explained, “I couldn’t see them. They had a big light in my eyes.”

The man she saw aiming a gun at her through the window had nothing visible that said “cop.”

“I was thinking, is this some kind of nutjob?” she said.

Turns out it was just a U.S. Federal marshal exercising what he thinks is his right under his authoritative title, and of course was “just doing his job.”

Eventually Wiggins admitted, “I feel bad for her. But at the same time, I had to reasonably believe the bad guy was in her house based on what they were doing.”

Despite the fact that she was pointing a gun at police, and Goldsberry wasn’t shot, Wiggins says, “She sure shouldn’t be going to the press.”

The suspect, Kyle Riley, was arrested several hours later in another part of Sarasota.

A Country Founded by Geniuses but Run by Idiots

by Jeff Foxworthy:

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you MUST show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If the government wants to prevent stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman or a three-year-old girl who is confined to a wheelchair can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion, while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to provide incentives for not working, by granting 99 weeks of unemployment checks, without any requirement to prove that gainful employment was diligently sought, but couldn’t be found — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If being stripped of your Constitutional right to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

What a country!

How about we give God a reason to continue blessing America!

Unions take another city down

Catholic collegea call for immigration reform.

The presidents of 93 Catholic colleges and universities are calling on Catholic members of the House of Representatives to pass immigration reform that would put most of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country on a path to citizenship.
“Catholic teaching values the human dignity and worth of all immigrants, regardless of legal status,” the Catholic leaders say in a letter sent to all 163 Catholic member of Congress, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner. “We remind you that no human being made in the image of God is illegal.”  http://news.yahoo.com/religious-colleges-to-catholic-members-of-congress--pass-immigration-reform--191440814.html

Ain't she be one fine teach

Ivy League professor calls God a 'racist' after Zimmerman verdict

Published July 16, 2013

FoxNews.com

• 
  University of Pennsylvania religious studies professor Anthea Butler, who charged in her blog that God is a "racist." (University of Pennsylvania)
• 
  Anthea Butlers latest blog post on religiondispatches.org in which she says that God is a "White Racist" in response to last weeks not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. (FoxNews.com)

Next Slide Previous Slide

An Ivy League professor blogged after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin that the verdict shows God is a “white racist” who stalks “young black men.”

Anthea Butler, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Religious Studies, made the unusual comments in a blog post released on Monday on ReligionDispatches.org, where she is a regular contributor.

“God ain’t good all of the time. In fact, sometimes, God is not for us,” she wrote in the post. “As a black woman in an [sic] nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god.

“As a matter of fact, I think he’s a white racist god with a problem. More importantly, he is carrying a gun and stalking young black men,” she added.

Butler adds that Trayvon Martin’s killing was the result of racism that was influenced by Christianity.

“As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history,” she wrote. “Those of us who teach American Religion have a responsibility to tell all of the story, not just the nice touchy-feely parts.”

“When the good Christians of America are some of its biggest racists, one has to consider our moral responsibility to call out those who clearly are not for human flourishing, no matter what ethnicity a person is. Where are you on that scale? I know where I am.”

According to her biography, Butler holds doctorate and masters degrees in religion from Vanderbilt University as well as a masters in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is the author of a 2007 book titled "Women in the Church of God in Christ, Making A Sanctified World," published by University of North Carolina Press.

Butler, who did not respond to requests for comment, is also an associate chair for the school's religious studies department and is a regular contributor and guest on both MSNBC and CNN.

Josiah Ryan, editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, which first reported Butler's comments, said the professor's reaction to the verdict was bizarre. 

"No amount of heartbreak over the Zimmerman acquittal justifies these hateful posts," Ryan said. "Professor Butler's remarks were clearly designed to hurt when Americans needed healing and to divide when we needed unity.”

"In tumultuous times students must be able turn to their professors for calm and wisdom. In stoking the flames of hatred, Professor Butler has betrayed her students' trust. UPenn administrators ought not to allow her back in the classroom."

Officials for the University of Pennsylvania declined to comment.

The Times Falsely Claims That Obamacare Cuts N.Y. Health Premiums By 50 Percent

Just a shill for the O administration so they and every liberal rag out there can claim success. You can't take an industry where margins are 3% and drop premiums by 50%. NOT POSSIBLE.

The Times Falsely Claims That Obamacare Cuts N.Y. Health Premiums By 50 Percent

By  Avik Roy

In an enthusiastic front-page story in today’s New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin and Reed Abelson claim that, as a result of Obamacare, health insurance premiums for individuals shopping on their own for coverage will be “at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available in New York” because “individuals in New York City who now pay $1,000 a month or more for coverage will be able to shop for health insurance for as little as $308 monthly.” See, Obamacare works!

Sounds great, except for a couple of points:

• New York has one of the costliest and least functional individual-insurance markets in the nation, because many of the regulations that Obamacare imposes nationwide arealready present in New York, on steroids. Hence, New York’s market is far from typical.
• In 2010, average per-person monthly premiums in the New York individual market were not “$1,000 or more,” but $357. Even less expensive plans can be found today onehealthinsurance.com. 

I’ll publish a more detailed analysis of New York’s insurance rates soon, but in the meantime, take the Times piece with a big grain of salt.
Via Yossi Gestetner.

UPDATE See Comment: McCain needs to GO!

I'm supporting whoever runs against McCain. Primary or re-election. Dude has completely lost it.

Sen. John McCain spent the weekend negotiating with Majority Leader Harry Reid on a deal to avert Reid's threatened use of the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to eliminate filibusters on Presidential nominations. Through his efforts, McCain was able to secure a complete GOP capitulation on 7 pending nominations. Reid secured all the benefits of exercising the "nuclear option" without the political cost of actually using it.  

Fad Food Nation

By
• TREVOR BUTTERWORTH

Not so long ago, I spoke to a chef who ministers to children attending some of the most elite and expensive schools in America. Why, I asked him, was his company's website larded with almost comical warnings about the lethality of eating genetically modified (GM) food? Did he actually believe this as scientific fact or was he catering to his clientele's spiritual fears? It was simply for the mothers, he said, candidly. They ate it up—or, rather, they had swallowed so many apocalyptic warnings about genetically modified food that he had no choice but to echo their terror. How could they entrust their children to him otherwise? The downside of such dogma, he explained, was cost. Many of the mothers wouldn't agree to their children eating anything less than 100% organic, even if organic food required flying in, as he put it, "apples from Cuba." Even among America's elite, not everyone could stomach the price of purity.
If ever the mothers of the 1% needed something of substance to digest, then it's "Something to Chew On," a grand tour of food-related sense and nonsense led by Mike Gibney, one of Ireland's leading scientists and a noted authority on food and nutrition.
With lucid precision and a leavening of wry comment, Mr. Gibney surveys the best of recent research and the claims being made about food, health and the environment. His approach throughout is one of scientifically informed skepticism. He notes, for instance, that "buying local seems attractive" and that leading chefs seem to favor it, but it is often "not feasible" unless we all want to go back to a time, long ago, when the caged menu of local food led to a poor diet. He writes that "the breadth of variety we have today requires food miles"—that is, the transport of food over a distance. Contrary to the claims of hyper-localists, food miles are "not a major factor in the overall CO2 economy." Indeed, if you examine all the variables—food quality, cost of storage, consumption habits, seasonal fluctuations—"food miles are far more complex than the simple models often used by activists."
Similarly, he shows that the "corporate component of the average diet"—the part blamed on McDonald's, MCD -0.95% Nestle NESN.VX -0.08% and other food giants—"is far less than is popularly believed." Retailers, sitting at the "interface" between consumer and producer, in fact wield great influence, he notes, negotiating terms, demanding labels, banning additives, setting standards. The "industrial section," he says, is portrayed as the dominant player in the human food chain, "but that is not really the case."
As Mr. Gibney surveys the vast landscape of genetics, it becomes obvious that our pandemic of obesity isn't simply the result of people being stupid about what they eat. Biological propensities play a major role, along with lifestyle choices. So even as we are beset with the cost of obesity, he argues, the problem of malnourishment—not getting the right kind of food—afflicts the lean and fat alike and ultimately costs our health-care systems just as much to deal with. It is the great hidden problem of aging in the developed world: Lower energy requirements, Mr. Gibney says, often lead to less eating, a tendency that "can be augmented by declining taste capacity." The combination can then lead to "even more muscle loss known as sarcopenia, a major cause of frailty, disability and loss of independence among the elderly."

Something to Chew On

By Mike Gibney

(University College Dublin Press, 177 pages, $38.95)

What becomes most clear of all in "Something to Chew On" is that most of us don't know what we are talking about when we talk about food and health. In the culture wars of the 1980s, impassioned arguments over deconstruction forced on participants a high entry fee. You had to know something about French theory to have a say. Unfortunately, the food wars merely require us to eat in order to become warrior-philosophers of the body politic. To adapt the famous line by the 18th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin, tell me what you eat and I won't just tell you what you are, I'll tell you off as well.
The problem—spelled out in a chapter called "How the Other Half Dies"—is that our first-world, finger-wagging food warfare can have terrible consequences, especially when it comes to genetically modified food. "Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Sudan," writes Mr. Gibney, "have all rejected food aid shipments on the grounds that they might contain GM grains." And why not, when European aid groups are funding anti-GM initiatives in those countries? Africans just want to be as safe as Europeans. But in this case, Africans risk literal blindness, from Vitamin A deficiency, by following Europe's metaphorical blindness over the benefits of GM crops. "As a citizen of Europe," Mr. Gibney says, "I feel utterly ashamed."
And there's a lot to be ashamed of. "So great is the level of confusion" over GM food, he writes, "that a staggering one in three European citizens agrees with the statement that 'Ordinary tomatoes don't have genes but genetically modified ones do.' "
Which isn't to say that blind panic over food is something new. Mr. Gibney recounts the plight of some followers of the Greek geometrician Pythagoras who, fleeing from persecution, were blocked by a field of fava beans. So fearful where they of being poisoned (to the susceptible, fava beans can induce a lethal form of anemia), they decided to take the long way around. "The hypotenuse would have been the wiser option," says Mr. Gibney. "They met their end."
The question is whether, in the face of similar decisions, we take the hypotenuse and allow others to do so. Are we going to rule GM crops that are resistant to drought off the table—beyond discussion—simply because the hypothetical risk is worse than actual drought? Or are we going to be scientifically reasonable? These are life-and-death decisions, and this is what makes "Something to Chew On" compulsive reading.
Mr. Butterworth is a contributor at Newsweek and editor at large for STATS.org.

Man beaten by ‘bored’ teens dies 1 year later

Authorities say the Cincinnati-area man who was badly beaten by six teens almost a year ago in a Cincinnati suburb has died. 

Pat Mahaney, 46, died yesterday in the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said Julie Wilson, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office. 

The six teens, all 13 or 14, injured Mahaney in August and told police they did it because they were bored and looking for something to do. 

Wilson said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters has asked the coroner for an autopsy. 

Three of the youths have pleaded guilty to felonious assault. 

Wilson would not elaborate on whether the office will seek additional charges against the teens. She said the office will describe its “next steps, if any,” after the coroner issues a report.

Health care questions for the group

As I get ready to go back to school and enter into a Nurse Practitioner program next month, I'm curious to hear (if people are willing to share) what experiences people here have had with NP's and in what situations (if any) you would be at least as comfortable seeing an NP as you would a physician. Independent of Obama care, which is its own can of worms, the role of NP's has been growing quite a bit and in some states, like here in Nevada, NP's are being severed from their need to have a collaborative agreement with an MD who is supposed to be reviewing the way NP's practice and deliver care.

Ironically, long before I even had the idea of becoming a nurse, the thought occurred to me that it would make sense (from a free market perspective) to have a significant field of "mid level" practitioners who primarily gave basic care such as assessment, schedule labs, review current health and so on. The benefit, I believed at the time, would be that seeing these mid level care givers would be cheaper then seeing a doctor. For specialties and higher levels of care, the MD would remain the primary care giver. Seems like that is coming to pass.

As a nurse, of course, I have a biased view. I've met many doctors who are truly, brilliant people. But, I've also found that despite having extensive training and going through residency programs where they spend time in every aspect of acute care from ER to ICU to Surgery to delivering babies, MD's will eventually settle into a particular specialty and become very dialed into that specialty at the expense of retaining a high level of competency in other areas of medicine. Here in Vegas, I worked with doctors who rounded on patients in the ICU as a primary care doctor, but would not be able to manage the care of that patient if the patient was crashing. At one time, these doctors obviously went through a residency program wherein they did manage ICU patients, but over time, they lose that skill and knowledge. They may be good at their role of primary care, but that extra knowledge required seems lost if not used and retained.

A knock on NP's I have heard is that they are not as well trained as MD's and I have to agree this is mostly true. An NP is never going to have the residency experience of an MD and will not be as cross trained as an MD is while going through school and residency. That said, as a prospective NP student, I will be going for a masters degree AFTER having already worked as an RN for six plus years, with the bulk of that time spent in the ICU. Once I start my clinicals, I wont' be getting a full cross training across the entire life span, but then again, once I am done, I plan to work in the area of my degree, which will be adult and gero populations. I won't be doing acute care, unless I get more education and clinical experience and unlike some NP's, I believe I will be very content staying in that scope of practice.

So, my questions, going back to the top also include what your general beliefs are of NP's. Should they exist? Are they safe? Would you use them?

Cities in flames after Zimmerman verdict announced

Oh, wait, that didn't happen.

10 Reasons Why Sharknado Is Coming To The Global Economy

Have you ever seen a disaster movie that is so bad that it is actually good?  Well, that is exactly what Syfy's new television movie entitled "Sharknado" is.  In the movie, wild weather patterns actually cause man-eating sharks to come flying out of the sky.  It sounds absolutely ridiculous, and it is.  You can view the trailer for the movie right here. Unfortunately, we are witnessing something just as ridiculous in the real world right now. 

In the United States, the mainstream media is breathlessly proclaiming that the U.S. economy is in great shape because job growth is "accelerating" (even though we actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month) and because the U.S. stock market set new all-time highs this week.  The mainstream media seems to be absolutely oblivious to all of the financial storm clouds that are gathering on the horizon.  The conditions for a "perfect storm" are rapidly developing, and by the time this is all over we may be wishing that flying sharks were all that we had to deal with.  

The following are 10 reasons why the global economy is about to experience its own version of "Sharknado"...

#1 The financial situation in Portugal continues to deteriorate thanks to an emerging political crisis.  It all began last week when Portuguese finance minister Vitor Gaspar resigned...

"Mr. Gaspar's resignation on July 1 has opened a Pandora's box," says Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy. "Portuguese politicians from the President down are treating the exit of Mr. Gaspar, the architect of the fiscal and structural reforms demanded by the troika, as a green light for a public debate about the bail-out programme. Yet the manner in which this debate is taking place, with the President undermining the prime minister and the opposition leader seeking to renegotiate the terms of the programme, is spooking markets."

The general population is becoming increasingly restless as the nation plunges down the exact same path that Greece has gone.  Nobody seems to have any solutions as the economic problems continue to escalate.  According to Reuters, the president of Portugal has added fuel to the fire by calling for early elections next year...

Portugal's president threw the bailed-out euro zone country into disarray on Thursday after rejecting a plan to heal a government rift, igniting what critics called a "time bomb" by calling for early elections next year.

Due to all of this instability in Portugal, the yield on Portuguese bonds shot up to 7.51%this week.  That is a very bad sign.

#2 The economic depression in Greece continues to deepen, and it is being reported that Greece will not even come close to hitting the austerity targets that it was supposed to hit this year...

A leaked report from the European Commission confirms that Greece will miss its austerity targets yet again by a wide margin. It alleges that Greece lacks the “willingness and capacity” to collect taxes. In fact, Athens is missing targets because the economy is still in freefall and that is because of austerity overkill. The Greek think-tank IOBE expects GDP to fall 5pc this year. It has told journalists privately that the final figure may be -7pc.

Another 7 percent contraction for the Greek economy?

It has already been contracting steadily for years.

At this point, it would be hard to overstate how bad economic conditions inside Greece are.  The following is from a recent article by Simon Black...

My friend Illias took a drag of his cigarette as he contemplated my question.

"Our government tells us that this will be a better year. No one really believes them. But all we can do is be optimistic. Too many people are committing suicide."

His statement probably best sums up the situation in Greece right now. It's as if the hopelessness has gone stale, and the only thing they have to replace it with is desperate, misguided, faux-optimism. And anger.

There are roughly 11 million people in this country. 3.4 million of them are employed, of which roughly one third work for the government.

1.34 million people are 'officially' unemployed. To put this in context, it would be as if there were 36 million officially unemployed in the US.

More startling, if you add the number of 'inactive' workers (i.e. those who gave up looking), the total number of unemployed is roughly 57% of the entire Greek work force.

#3 The economic crisis in the third largest country in the eurozone, Italy, has taken another turn for the worse.  The unemployment rate in Italy is up to 12.2 percent, which is the highest in 35 years.  An average of 134 retail outlets are shutting down in Italy every single day, and the debt of the country has been downgraded again to just above junk status...

Italy’s slow crisis is again flaring up. Its debt trajectory has punched through the danger line over the past two years. The country’s €2.1 trillion (£1.8 trillion) debt – 129pc of GDP – may already be beyond the point of no return for a country without its own currency.

Standard & Poor’s did not say this outright when it downgraded the country to near-junk BBB on Tuesday. But if you read between the lines, it is close to saying the game is up for Italy.

#4 There are rumors that some of the biggest banks in the world are in very serious trouble.  For example, Jim Willie (a financial writer who usually puts out really solid information) is insisting that Deutsche Bank is on the verge of collapse...

The best information coming to my desk indicates that three major Western banks are under constant threat of failure overnight, every night, forcing extraordinary measures to avoid failure.

They are Deutsche Bank in Germany, Barclays in London, and Citibank in New York. Judging from the ongoing defense from prosecution and cooperation (flipped) with Interpol and distraction of resources, the most likely bank to die next is Deutsche Bank. They are caught with accounting fraud and outright financial fraud over collateral shell games, pertaining to USTreasury Bonds, other sovereign bonds in Southern Europe, and OTC derivatives linked to FOREX currency contracts. D-Bank is a dead man walking.

Time will tell if he is right.  But without a doubt the global financial system is extremely vulnerable right now.

Most Americans assume that the problems that caused the financial crash of 2008 were fixed, but that is most definitely NOT the case.  In fact, our financial system is far more shaky today than it was just before the last financial crisis.  When one major bank goes down, we could start to see others fall like dominoes.

#5 Just before the financial crisis of 2008, the price of oil spiked dramatically.  Well, it is starting to happen again.  The price of oil hit $106 a barrel on Friday.  If the price of oil continues to rise at this pace, it is going to mean big trouble for economies all over the planet.

And as I wrote about recently, every time the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has risen above $3.80 during the past three years, a stock market declinehas always followed.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States reached $3.55 on Friday.  This is a number to keep a close eye on.

#6 Mortgage rates are absolutely skyrocketing right now...

The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage rose this week to 4.51%, a two-year high. Rates have been rising on expectations that the Federal Reserve will slow its bond purchases this year.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average on the 30-year loan jumped from 4.29% the previous week. Just two months ago, it was 3.35% — barely above the record low of 3.31%.

This threatens to throw the U.S. real estate market into a slowdown worse than anything we have seen since the last recession.

#7 This upcoming corporate earnings season is shaping up to be an extremely disappointing one.  In fact, the percentage of companies issuing negative earnings guidance for this quarter is at a level that we have never seen before.

So is this a sign that economic activity is starting to slow down significantly?

#8 U.S. stocks are massively overextended right now.  In fact, according to Graham Summers, this is the most overextended stocks have been in the past 20 years...

Today, the S&P 500 is sitting a full 30% above its 200-weekly moving average. We have NEVER been this overextended above this line at any point in the last 20 years.

#9 Rapidly rising interest rates are causing the bond market to begin to come apart at the seams.  There is concern that the 30 year bull market for bonds is now over and investors are starting to pull their money out of the market at a staggering rate.  In fact, 80 billion dollars was pulled out of bond funds during June alone.

#10 Rapidly rising interest rates could cause an implosion of the derivatives market at any moment.  As I am so fond of reminding everyone, there are approximately 441 trillion dollars worth of interest rate derivatives out there.

If interest rates continue to soar, we could potentially see a financial disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and the too big to fail banks would be the most vulnerable.

As USA Today recently reported, there are just five major banks that absolutely dominate derivatives trading in the United States...

Five of the biggest U.S. banks — JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley — account for more than 90% of derivatives contracts. Regulators estimate that nearly half of derivatives are traded outside the United States.

Could you imagine the financial devastation that we would see if several of those banks started to collapse at the same time?

When you hear the mainstream media begin to talk about a "derivatives crisis" involving major banks, that will be a sign that disaster is upon us.

Most Americans don't realize that Wall Street has been transformed into the largest casino in the history of the world.  Most Americans don't realize that the major banks are literally walking a financial tightrope each and every day.

All it is going to take is one false step and we will be looking at a financial crisis even worse than what happened back in 2008.

So enjoy this little bubble of false prosperity while you can.

It is not going to last for too much longer.