It is Easter again when a religious holiday makes us all stop our busy lives for a day to reflect on how we can be a better person. We pause to really notice the children we are lucky enough to have in our lives. So we buy them bunnies and chocolates to enjoy just for a day. We buy the women in our lives beautiful plants and flowers to celebrate the beginning of a new season filled with aromatic fragrances from things grown out of the earth.

We feel humbled when we read the script of how Jesus suffered and died on the cross to save us. He didn’t have to die such an awful death. He is the son of God and could have led a kingly life here on earth. Instead he was a simple man who spent most of his years here being humble and helping people wherever he went. He only died because the existing leaders were jealous of his powers. Read the Old Testament of the Bible to understand all the miracles he did.

In the Vatican the closest person we have to God is the chosen man by other religious leaders, the Cardinals, called the Pope. For hundreds of years the Pope whoever he is, usually led a very rich and kingly life surrounded by lots of gold and jewels and living like royalty. Our recent Pope decided to do the unthinkable and walk away from his leadership; something that hasn’t been done in 600 years. He also walked away during the most important time of the year when Catholics all over the world reflect and feel all the suffering Jesus endured for us. We feel insignificant and learn to be more tolerant during this time of the year.

While the leaders during the time Jesus walked the earth were selfish and pompous we can feel that the past Pope and many religious leaders have failed us too. We have to consider him leaving us a blessing now because they have chosen now a very different kind of Pope. He even took on a name that no Pope has taken in the history of Popes. He is now Pope Francis the first.

Sometimes great change can be revealed in small gestures. This week Pope Francis knelt on the stone floor of a detention facility in Rome to wash and kiss the feet of 12 young inmates. Other popes have carried out this rite on Holy Thursday. It is a ceremony to emulate the way Jesus washed the feet of his 12 apostles at the Last Supper, just before he was tried and crucified.

But previous popes have washed the feet of priests in Rome's grand, golden St. John Lateran Basilica. Pope Francis went to a penitentiary to wash the feet of prisoners. They ranged in age from 14 to 21; many have had rough lives of struggle on the streets of Rome. The young offenders wore prison-issue jeans, and you could see tattoos on the ankles of a few when they inched up their pants so their feet could be washed by the pope, and dried with a plain towel before he kissed them. "This is a symbol, it is a sign," Pope Francis told them. "Washing your feet means I am at your service."

　

A few of the inmates were reportedly Roma. A few were Muslim. And two were women, which attracted attention because it seems to violate what are called "liturgical norms. "But when Francis was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, he often washed the feet of prison inmates and patients in hospitals, including women. It would have been possible for Pope Francis to undertake some study to eventually issue a liturgical decree to announce a change in ritual. But instead, as Father Charles Faso, a Franciscan friar in Chicago told us, "Pope Francis just did it. As Jesus 'just did it'...by touching people and talking with people who were excluded by law from human touch and care."

I think his simple gestures like this gives us all hope to treat others as we would like to be treated. Use your day called Easter Sunday to be good to someone. Make the smile somehow. Touch them in a way they are not used to being touched and get away from your usual self and be different towards others and truly do something kind and caring. What can go wrong? Nothing, it is all good. Be good to someone.

Recently there was a thing we celebrated called International Woman’s Day. Yes, there is Mother’s Day but we really do need to give more credit to all women in general. On the cover of Time Magazine is a big shot woman Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook who recently wrote a book called Lean In. She makes a point that women in the work place should be more aggressive and that everyone has to get used to it. It used to be that women would be afraid to look aggressive because if a man is aggressive he is a hero. If a woman is aggressive she is a bitch.

In the book she advises women not to listen to the negative voices in their head. The voices that say they aren’t good enough or that the most important thing is to be liked by everyone. At the same time she embraces taking time for what you want. She was offered the job as CEO of Linkedin, the world’s largest professional network and turned it down to have and raise a child for a while. Her message is important now because it is still a man’s world and it is not functioning too well. Men still can set themselves on fire when asked to go to the store to buy anything.

International Women's Day

(IWD), originally called International Working Women's Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. Started as a political Socialist event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily, Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc.

In some regions, the day lost its political flavor, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine‘s Day. In other regions, however, the political and human rights theme designated by the United Nation runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner. This is a day which some people celebrate by wearing purple ribbons.

Society needs to change and let women work around their biological clock. A woman should be allowed to have as many children as they want between the ages of 20-30 their most fertile years. Raise their children and let the 10 year old kids be involved in their schooling. At that point women should be encouraged to get all the degrees and higher education they want and pursue successful careers and have all they want on their biological schedule.

Motherhood should not be undervalued. Women should not be discriminated from good jobs just because they might have to leave because of maternity. Then this country undervalues women who need maternity leave. The statistics say it all. Croatia has one year of paid maternity leave. Canada has 50 weeks paid leave. Norway 44, Italy 22, France and Spain 16 paid weeks maternity leave. Pakistan where we found Bin Laden hiding gives their women 12 weeks. The United States gives our beautiful mother’s of our healthy children 0 that is zero paid maternity leave.

Do we have a philosophy that motherhood is undervalued in this country? Ironically, the top 40% wage earners in this country are women. Now we have women earning more than their male counterparts yet they are still the ones to get pregnant. Science has only perfected Viagra for hard on’s and Rogain for hair loss all for men. Women still do everything to manage a home. Then the women who make more money than their husbands often find that they have erectile dysfunction issues. Also, the men have hidden credit card debt because they still spend like they are the major bread earners of the family.

To bad no one really knows about International Women’s Day here in America. I guess not even knowing about it says it all.

　

　

　

　

　

Our government is comprised of an old boys club. All the same guys are there appointing themselves to high paid positions even if the citizens have the chance to vote the bums out. They just move to another corner like a bunch of bloated fat rats only their other name is Lobbyists.

Of the 352 members of Congress who left office between 1998 and 2011, 80% became Lobbyists

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This is called the revolving door. It is the rats thrown out of Congress and coming back to hang out now under a new title. It is why our government cannot solve any problems and move on. We can’t stop buying fighter jets that we don’t need. If they are voted down, the issue pops up again with the backing of the Lobbyists. It is why we can’t even get rid of the penny because even the penny has a lobbyist fighting for it to stay. A penny coin costs more to make than it is worth.

The reason that this happens is because the government is involved in too many things. If the government would be involved in less issues, there would be less Lobbyists advocating for that issue. The government should be there only to pay for infrastructure and our protection from possible enemies. Yes, fix all the potholes and build all our roads and bridges. Get defense systems to protect us. But keep out of our women’s vagina's telling them if they can make babies or not. Keep out of our thoughts and minds telling us who we can love whether it is a man or woman and above all keep your filthy hands out of our wallets. Stop taxing us for everything we might enjoy in life.

After Obama care was passed, all the people that were involved in writing that law became Lobbyists for the medical industry and are all making seven figure salaries. For example, there was Billy Tauzin a Republican from Louisiana who headed a committee that was investigating the pharmaceutical industry under the Bush administration and passed a giant Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Then he turns around and works for the pharmaceutical industry as a Lobbyist earning $11 Million dollars a year. Guys like him are making money from both sides of the fence. They are spineless snakes with no integrity that just go where the grass is greenest in their pockets.

We have takers in this country that hide in their $1,000 suits with their American flag lapel buttons. Capitol Hill has become an internship for people as a stepping stone on their way to the big lobby jobs. Another sell out traitor is Peter Orszag who was the Budget Chairman for President Obama and who is now Vice-chairman for Citi Bank. Selling out pays. Peter Richard Orszag is an American economist who is a Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group at Citigroup.

If you’re a corporation or Lobbyist, what’s the best way to “buy” a member of Congress? Secretly promise them a million dollars or more in pay if they come to work for you after they leave office. Once a public official makes a deal to go to work for a lobbying firm or corporation after leaving office, he or she becomes loyal to the future employer. And since those deals are done in secret, legislators are largely free to pass laws, special tax cuts, or earmarks that benefit their future employer with little or no accountability to the public. While campaign contributions and super PACS are a big problem, the every day bribery of the revolving door may be the most pernicious form of corruption today.

Unlike some other forms of money in politics, politicians never have to disclose job negotiations while in office, and never have to disclose how much they’re paid after leaving office. In many cases, these types of revolving door arrangements drastically shape the laws we all live under. For example, former Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) spent his last year in office fighting reforms to bring greater transparency to the derivatives marketplace. Almost as soon as he left office, he joined the board of a derivatives trading company and became an advisor to Goldman Sachs. Risky derivative trading exacerbated the financial crisis of 2008, yet we’re stuck under the laws written in part by Gregg. How much has he made from the deal? Were his actions in office influenced by relationships with his future employers?

There are only a few disclosures that are out there to find out how much lawmakers make when they sell out and lobby for interests they once oversaw as public officials. To be sure, this only shows the tip of the iceberg. Out of the 44 lawmakers who left office in 2010 for a lobbying-related career, only ONE is at an organization that discloses his salary.

Investigations found that lawmakers increased their salary by 1452% on average from the last year they were in office to the latest publicly available disclosure:

Former Congressman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) made $19,359,927 as a lobbyist for pharmaceutical companies between 2006 and 2010

. Tauzin retired from Congress in 2005, shortly after leading the passage of President Bush’s prescription drug expansion. He was recruited to lead PhRMA, a lobbying association for Pfizer, Bayer, and other top drug companies. During the health reform debate, the former congressman helped his association block a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate for drug prices, a major concession that extended the policies enacted in Tauzin’s original Medicare drug-purchasing scheme. Tauzin left PhRMA in late 2010. He was paid over $11 million in his last year at the trade group. Comparing Tauzin’s salary during his last year as congressman and his last year as head of PhRMA, his salary went up 7110%.

America is very very good to a chosen few.

They say, “If you build it, they will come “ among real estate big shots. Well, in China they are building entire cities with no one coming to live there. The economy is a mess and little regulation being done to control trends there. They also say, “Trouble comes in threes.” Could China be the next global market to melt down right after the United States and Europe? I just want to know who are the “THEY”?

It is apparent that if you wish to move up quickly in corporate America, just be willing to take a position in China for a while and upon completion of your project you should be rewarded handsomely for your sacrifice. In just 30 years the state controlled economy has become the world’s second largest. The government has concentrated on real estate and construction to fuel their economy. They forgot one major part. The people need to be able to earn a decent wage to afford to live in a great new home. The people earn next to nothing there.

The most populated nation on earth is building houses, districts and cities with no one in them. There are ghost cities with desolate condos and vacant subdivisions uninhabited for many miles yet they have all been sold. The emerging middle class in China has been buying real estate as an investment since values have tripled in price. Banks pay small returns and their stock market fluctuates like a roller coaster. 15 years ago the government changed their policies and allowed people to buy their own homes.

Everyone bought real estate because property prices have gone up faster than inflation. Some have bought 5 or 10 apartments fueling the building boom. No nation has built so much so fast. Now real estate is the main driver of growth comprising of 20 to 30% growth to their economy. 12 to 24 new cities are being erected every year. America has a market driven economy. In China it is the government that has spent $ 2 Trillion dollars to get these cities built as a way of keeping the economy growing.

All over China there are new shopping malls that are completely vacant. There is non-existent supply for non-existent demand. There are cities in Mongolia able to occupy a million people with no one living there. There is an English development near Shanghai called Thames Town that looks just like streets found in England built about 5 years ago that is more of a photo shoot area for weddings than a place to live. Tens of millions of villagers are being displaced and living like homeless people since they do not have their rice farms anymore.

Why are they empty? Well, most villagers live on about two dollars a day. The average apartment costs about $100,000 dollars. The villagers could never afford to live in a new place. China’s citizens are victims of the building boom. There will be multiple classes of people that eventually will be wiped out by this trend. There are people that invested 3 generations of savings into these empty structures that will see all their money evaporate.

Least we forget the 50 Million construction workers that will be out of a job once all the families saved money is all spent. Even the largest home builder in the world is Chinese and he predicts that this bubble will burst soon. A typical apartment in Shanghai costs about 45 times the average residents annual salary. Since 2011 China’s government has tried to curb the building and has ruled that you can only own one apartment; similar to their having only one child rule to curb the growing population.

Now there are unfinished construction sites abandoned because the building boom has slowed down so less investment means less money to finish projects. It is becoming a debt crisis because of the huge loans the developers took out. If they can’t repay them, the whole economy will stop. The governments greatest fear is that once everyone has lost their savings in these investments there will be riots and a general desire to force a democracy.

The Chinese people are fascinated with the American way and appreciate the many successful American based companies. We should appreciate our way of life more.

　

　

You cannot resist her full kissable lips that you know have not been contaminated with Botox because we have all seen them as she grew up on film from an innocent girl into a beautiful woman. She is Scarlett Johansson. Who else could play a 25 year old in a romantic lead at the age of only 17? Well, she did in the 2003 movie called Lost In Translation opposite Bill Murray.

Last summer we all saw her beating up the bad guys as the Black Widow in the movie the Avengers. It was a real career change for an actress who has been known as a Hollywood sex symbol. Now you can see her on Broadway where she is the main attraction to her show in which she also is receiving proceeds from the profits there. For about two and a half months she will be appearing at the Richard Rogers Theater. The 28 year old actress is taking on the dramatic role as Maggie in the Tennessee Williams Play Cat On A Hot Tim Roof.

I remember seeing the movie when I was a child staring Elizabeth Taylor in her Academy Award performance then. I didn’t understand it much; just that she was really upset a lot and was really mad most of the time. Kids remember that stuff. The part in the play is for a southern belle woman trying to hold onto her decaying marriage. I know a passionate woman like that going through the same problems.

Johanasson is only being paid $40 thousand per week for all that drama plus a percentage of the box office which means that the show needs to sell a lot of tickets. With her name on the sign out front the tickets are hard to find; the show is doing well. Who doesn’t want to see those full kissing lips up close and personal in a sexy dramatic live show? Ok, I know I sound creepy now. It is not her first appearance on Broadway. In 2010 she won a Tony Award for her performance in Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge.

Scarlett compares working on Broadway to childbirth. The Tony Award is like the beautiful child you get to keep but the 8 performances per week is like all the work during childbirth. You forget the pain until you have to go through it again. She is the product of her Mother who took her to many auditions since she was three years old. Her father was a Danish Architect while her mother managed her career. Her first work was in a off Broadway play called Sophistry when she was in the third grade.

She was just 9 years old when she acted in her first movie called North in 1994. She really got Hollywood’s attention when she played a teenage amputee in Robert Redford’s film The Horse Whisperer. By age 17 she landed her first adult role when she played a lonely 25 year old newlywed. Her job was to fall in love with an aging film star. Only six days after filming, she began her work on Girl With A Pearl Earring where she became a sexy actress.

Woody Allen then caught her and cast her in three films including Match point in 2005. She has that hot sexy scene where she makes love in a field in the rain. He described her as “sexually overwhelming.” It has been 2 years now after her brief marriage to the also hot and sexy man Ryan Reynolds has ended. Now she loves her latest success as being a super hero. Swill be reprising The black Widow in Marvel’s Captain America sequel. She is now looking for tougher more womanly parts. She knows her life is still in transition and we will be watching her juicy lips all the way wherever she goes.

　

Don’t you dare feel sorry for yourself. Don’t feel like there are no choices left. Above all, do not feel like life has nothing to offer anymore. Instead, read the book about a truly great guy who against all odds has a wonderful life all because of his attitude towards life. Even President Kennedy once said that life is unfair but this guy who has been dealt a very unfair set of cards makes you almost feel bad about yourself for ever complaining about anything.

The truly great guy is Nick Vujicic who just wrote his second book called Unstoppable and is already on The New York Times Bestseller’s list. On the cover of the book he writes, “The Incredible Power of Faith in Action.” After reading the book you almost feel guilty for having what you have in life but then after seeing how he conducts his life with having so little, well, you realize that it must be faith in himself in action that is the force that drives him to get things done; somehow.

I found this book more inspirational than what any preacher could tell me in any church especially since the so called inspirational leaders of our clergy seem to always be failing us. They are so wealthy, they abuse our little boys, they even decide to walk away during the holiest time of the year while having the gift of having the holiest position here on earth. Yes I am talking about the Pope.

Imagine giving birth to your child and instead of the doctor proudly giving the mother her child immediately after birth shielding her from looking at the baby. It happened to Nick. He was born without arms or legs. He is a fully grown man now if you can even say that and has a full and vibrant life. The man plays miniature golf by holding the club under his chin and shaking to move the club.. The man swims and dives into a pool and waves the odd looking foot kind of thing attached under his torso.

He does not see himself as a disabled person; in fact, he reveals that sometimes he forgets that he doesn’t have arms or legs. He gets through life embracing what he does have rather than being angry for what he doesn’t have in life. It is an inspirational message that he takes to millions around the world as a motivational speaker and draws sell out crowds. At age 30 he is busier than he has ever been in life. He can type 60 words a minute with that strange foot or fingers that jet out from his torso. He can make eggs fry by balancing a bowl under his chin and shoulder.

Whether it is skydiving or surfing his torso on a board or even kicking back a soccer ball back with his finger thing he seems to do even the most athletic things with a smile. Despite his good hearted nature you know that life has not been an easy ride for Nick. Born in 1982 in Australia his Mom was shocked that he was born this way with no warning from her doctors being a trained mid-wife herself. After 2 ultrasounds and eating well even without tea or coffee her doctor did not detect a problem.

His own father had no expectations of him and assumed he would live in a vegetative state with no future. The condition is very rare. He learned to adapt by riding a skateboard on his belly and playing ball with his head. When he was six years old he was given a state of the art prosthetic set of arms and legs but by then he was so used to doing things without the plastic contraption that he opted never to use the thing. What did feel right was his specially designed powered wheel chair that lets him go everywhere. Despite everything he could engineer for himself to keep up with the others, the curious looks and just plain laughter at people getting a look at this torso with a talking head , well, there is no escape from that.

Going to school was the most difficult thing in his life from the bullying not from any difficulty in doing things. The emotional toll had him crying everyday. At age ten he tried to commit suicide and drown himself in the bathtub but then couldn’t do it. He realized that he must use his uniqueness to tell others that their life couldn’t possibly be all that bad if he could overcome all his obstacles. He now has a foundation called Life Without Limbs and his motto is From No Limbs to No Limits.

It is a place where people can overcome their troubles. What he loves most of all is receiving hugs from others after all, there isn’t any hand to shake. He wants people to say he looks different but he is still cool so it is ok for me to just be me too. He is a very cool man to his 25 year old wife who already gave birth to their completely normal fully limbed out baby. He is a very gifted and happy man. You could be happy too.

There is a new kind of war going on now. One that is paid for and delivered by your tax dollars. All my life I have heard of the constant battles between Israel and their neighbors. It was always horrible bloody images on the nightly news and only put aside for awhile when we had to witness Vietnam or the Iraq war or Afghanistan battles. Now, America has provided Israel such a unique weapon system that you would think would only be in a science fiction movie.

It is very real with a name that sounds like it should be with our comic book hero Iron Man. It is called the Iron Dome and it is very expensive and very reliable. So reliable that people continue with their daily lives while they simply watch bombs being destroyed in the sky like it was some kind of fireworks display. Instead of killing people, Iron Dome saves them by intercepting rockets loaded with explosives before they can land on innocent civilians and it does all this in less time than it took for you to read these two paragraphs.

The system was developed by Israel with hundreds of millions of dollars of support from the United States. It is so innovative that it is called a game changer in the world of warfare. It is already supporting and providing much relief and less work for the Israeli Military force. However, why is our government providing so much support to this place? Why can’t the average tax payer get to vote on where our Military dollars are spent? We have communities here in America that have been assaulted by storms and natural disasters that don’t seem to be getting any support or relief from their unwanted problems.

Over the past 11 years over 15,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas the Islamic Resistance Movement in the Gaza strip. Now, instead of running and screaming to try to get away from the bombs being shot up in the sky, the people stop to take pictures of one of the Israeli bombs seeking and destroying the enemies attempts to kill them. Bombs are sent from the Gaza strip and Israeli bombs intercept them with their own bombs being sent up into the sky from places near Ashkelon thus preventing anything from destroying Tel Aviv.

Iron Dome intercepts the bombs in the air before they can do any damage on the ground. At night the images are even more amazing watching lights streak across the sky and then blow up in a spray of light. The fact that this American funded weapons system can shoot down a short range rocket traveling between 500 and 1,000 mph. is remarkable. It is like a bullet shooting down another bullet. A few years ago when the idea was just written on paper, no one believed it was really possible.

It is run by battery so it can be placed anywhere. Each battery has it’s own radar, command, control center and launchers that fire the interccepting missiles. The equipment is worth about $50 Million dollars. When Hamas launches a rocket, Iron Dome detects it and the computers calculates where it will land. If it is headed for an empty field, Iron Dome will not waste a interceptor on it. If it is going towards a populated area, the system will figure out the best place to intercept the rocket so that the falling shrapnel will not do any harm. Then, within 3 yo 5 seconds a soldier has to decide whether to fire or not. It is not automatic, a soldier must make that final decision to intercept a rocket. The enemy rocket takes just 15 seconds to land at its destination.

The literal rocket scientist who invented this weapon interceptor refuses to reveal his identity but the company that manufactures the weapon is very vocal. The company is called Rafael. The company is proud to reveal that this past November more fire was directed at southern Israel in an 8 day battle than in all of Israel’s previous wars and that Iron Dome prevented damage to the city.

Israel was ready for full war with 75 thousand soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles who were called up ready for an invasion of Gaza. Because of Iron Dome Israel did not have to invade Gaza. The expense for all this is costing Americans an outrageous amount of our tax paying dollars. Each interceptor costs $75,000 dollars. The enemy rockets are being built for as little as $500 dollars.

In return for our gift to Israel all we ask is for Israel to stop expanding settlements into the Gaza strip since it is so upsetting to their enemies. Israel refuses to honor our request but continually asks and receives more money for more protection. America is a very generous country.  The United States has already provided Israel $270 Million dollars to help build Iron Dome.  It is in addition to the $3 Billion dollars Israel receives annually from America in Military aid. 

　

　

　

　

Hey! The stock market is at an all time high. It is the first time we approached 14,500 since the year 2007. If you are able to get a hold of any of the profit money from that how should you spend it? What should you be doing with any of your money these days? Well, the fact of the matter is that most Americans do not have any money to play in the stock market anyway. In the President’s State of the Union speech recently he mentioned that the minimum wage should be raised from $7.25 per hour to $9.00 per work hour.

Sure, bring it up to nine bucks but is that going to solve the problem of poverty in this country? NO. Right now there are 50 Million people in America according to the Census Bureau living in poverty. There is an additional 100 Million people on the brink of poverty yet our President claims that we are the wealthiest nation in the world. That is one out of every two people in serious financial trouble. A $1.75 raise per hour is not going to save anyone. People need real jobs not minimum wage jobs.

The stock market only went up because there is no where else to put your money. Banks are paying only one percent on your savings now so, at least with a rise in the stock market, if everyone buys shares in something, you can get 5% for your investment. Is that helping the overall economy? No, because there aren’t any jobs being offered in this country. Since the Bill Clinton days jobs have been encouraged to go overseas for manufacturing. The only good careers being offered to our college age kids are in the field of engineering where our kids can learn how to build more robots and machines to take the jobs that people would have held in manufacturing.

Mortgage rates are really low now where you can get a low 3.5% rate. So, should we all go out and buy some property? Yes. Just make sure you are buying the cheapest property in the best neighborhood so that the property will still be worth something ten years from now. Where else can you keep your money growing? Money Market accounts are terrible now, they are only giving you back half a percent taxable so don’t invest there.

Forget bonds now. You used to be able to buy the EE bonds at your local bank and you were sure they would double the face value someday. Now bonds are fluctuating all the time . They go up and down in value. You can even loose your principle or initial investment if they default. Many bonds have defaulted recently. Even Municipal bonds have defaulted. Last December the unforgivable could have happened. Treasury bonds would be worthless in that month and you wouldn’t have gotten your money back if we went off that financial cliff in Washington.

People who make money are being hit way too much lately. Increases in Social Security took money immediately out of your pay check. Obama Care took hundreds of dollars out of your pension checks. Income taxes and a lot of cuts eat up any money we have. We are not able to take off certain deductions anymore. When are they going to tax the rich?

If you are faced with unemployment you could possibly expect not to work for about two years in your job search. So, with that unknown factor of when the cash will be flowing again into your pocket, you must cut down on all your spending. No more eating out at restaurants, or vacations or anything you have been spending on that is not purely an essential expense. All this not spending also makes the businesses cut back on jobs because you are not spending money on stuff. So, it is a viscous circle of the entire slowing of the economy. If you have some money try to put away about 8 months worth of expenses as a safety net for you and your family.

Do you think you can retire soon? Forget it unless you are between 62 and 67 years old. Your Social Security increases about 6% per year. If you wait until 67 to 70 years old it will increase about 8% per year. Remember your life expectancy is longer now and you will need those checks to last. If you are in good health work as long as you possibly can. Even though we are back to where we were in the stock market we do have to make up for our losses in previous years.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Where have all the protesters gone or anyone who dared to write letters or make phone calls saying they are not going to take it anymore? Well, If you dared to do it repeatedly to a government office, you are probably going insane right now. It is widely believed now that we the people can and are being tortured my microwave noises given off radio towers near our homes. Many protesters have been experiencing the same irritating symptoms of discomfort coming from their head.

The government has the warfare to be able to control your mind. It is the product of research and development that began in 1953 from the Central Intelligence Agency that was recently used on the Iraqi soldiers when thousands simply put their guns down and surrendered; but now our CIA is using this same type of warfare on annoying American citizens to get them to stop their activities.

It can be a continuous psychological torture. Complaints seem to be increasing from targeted individuals. Now, instead of this weapon used to protect us, it is being used to control us. Microwave radio towers exist all over the country and were built as a nationwide network for communication in case of nuclear war but now it’s powerful energy waves are suspected to be part of a secret government way to use the microwaves to control or at least interfere with our thoughts.

A Dr. Terry Robinson has received many similar complaints from his patients and he believes that they are victims of what is known as psychotronic weapons which is brain manipulation from a distance used by communication technologies. He has worked with a group of over 1,000 individuals who consider themselves targeted individuals. They are literally going crazy. They represent a highly intelligent group where over 50% have a college degree and 12% have post-graduate degrees. The consistency is that the symptoms are the same for all of them.

Caroline Crowley from KPVJU News is a reporter on air who experienced an episode where she suddenly was saying gibberish a series of syllables that did not make words. Even Judge Judy claims to have episodes of uncontrollable things happening. Offending a political insider is usually the case for becoming a targeted individual. There are even businesses opening up now like BLOCK EMF which is a place that sells products to help protect one from electric magnetic radiation.

Most of the products are meters to measure the electro magnetic radiation in the air or materials to help prevent it from entering your body. They will stock everything from protective detergents for your cloths to rubberized paint for your walls. The towers give off a microwave beam as if it is a sound wave. The practice of synthetic telepathy being used has been patented by the Air Force to be used as a mind control weapon. It was called MK Ultra which was the CIA’s brain washing program that fed people LSD that turned soldiers into assassins.

The program was exposed and supposedly shut down in the 1970’s but it is believed to be updated and used widely now on complaining Americans. The towers giving off the microwave beams are called 

GWEN representing a Ground Wave Emergency Network. Years ago during experimentation they used to put a transmitter in a person’s sinus cavity and was hard wired into your brain since then the project has been moved to another agency and the microwave technology has been implemented. They send things through the air waves and can target an individual or large groups as well; mass populations through an electromagnetic pulse.

The pulse can mimic human brain waves creating anxiety and pain. The government has leased out or sold the bottom of the towers for cell phone use but retain the top of the towers for government use. Instead of being used to protect us it is being used to control us. It is being used to squelch dissent. Dr. Robert Duncan has advanced degrees from MIT the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard and went from those schools directly to the CIA. He is the creator of the current technology. He now claims to have been a simpleton and did not know how the technologies would be put together.

Technology is neutral. It can be used for good or evil. This is the ultimate weapon because it is worse than abuse it is torture. It is part of the world domination strategy. Control the population subconsciously to consciously. That is the motive for the use.

　

She is a skinny girl who claims she is so real. All I know is that she is a wealthy girl for doing well, I have no idea what exactly she is rich or famous for but she is. Her name is Bethenny Frankel. Three years ago she became famous for being a cast member on the reality show The Real Housewives of New York. Today she is in a 5 million dollar apartment in Manhattan overseeing her empire of Skinny Girl products. Yes she has branded herself.

Her New York apartment is headquarters for her Skinny Girl product empire and she has already made it to the cover of Forbes Magazine as the representative of the new celebrity money makers. She is selling everything from booze to books making deals on her kitchen phone while her two year old daughter is merrily making noise in the background. Most men would cringe at the thought of doing anything in the kitchen business wise with their young child squealing in the background.

The books are Naturally Thin, The Skinnygirl Dish and Skinnydipping among other titles. There are also skincare products and underwear products and anything Skinnygirl is huge now. Bethenny wants it all to be huge. The girlfriend factor is key to her success with her more than a million twitter followers. All her followers consider her as their BFF, yeah their best friend forever.

Frankel’s first reality TV appearance was back in 2005 when she tried for a job as Martha Stewart’s apprentice. She didn’t win the job on that show but three years later she was asked to be a member of the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City. She was a single girl struggling to make it as an entrepreneur so, she was hardly a housewife. She says that being on that show was the best decision of her life. What a bitch! What Mother doesn’t say that having her daughter IS the best decision of her life?

It was while she was on the show that she was distilling her business ventures. Using the show to promote her Skinnygirl Margarita was a slick way to get free advertising for her products. Fans soon became as curious as the recipe for her drinks as they were for the show itself. In 2009 she started bottling the concoction and in 2011 she sold the Skinnygirl booze to a global company.

Bethenny Frankel is the IT girl of reality TV. With the $100 million sale of her Skinnygirl drinks she is now one of Hollywood’s leading entrepreneurs. She is a smart girl too in that she retained the Skinnygirl name so she can promote other products using the name she has already promoted. She promoted her Tangerine Vodka, Cocanut Vodka, California White and Skinnygirl Red wine.

She is currently divorcing her husband and is looking forward to her independence. Being a child of divorce, she describes her own early years as less than ideal. Her step-father trained racehorses so she was at the track working when she was 7 years old helping out. Money would come and go quickly. She blames her craving for wealth because of the troubles she witnessed about money in her family life.

Frankel has not spoken to her mother in years but keeps in touch with her step-father despite the domestic violence she witnessed throughout their marriage. She attributes her ability to sting people to her mother. Her strong personality and ability to get in people’s faces quickly served her well on the show. Her time on Housewives was such a ratings success she was given her own shows. Bethenny Getting Married? And Bethenny Ever After.

I can’t believe I am even writing about this nonsense. It is just that she has become so wealthy. She has done everything on these shows from peeing in a champagne bucket wearing a wedding dress to details about her giving birth on camera. She was very open about troubles in her marriage and says she is not embarrassed about anything and in retrospect wouldn’t take anything back.

The reality show ended last spring and her marriage ended last month. She talked about the breakup on Ellen and no doubt will still be talking about it on her new talk show called Bethenny. The show is produced by Ellen and launches later this year. Frankel must have great marketing skills because not too many guests on talk shows are able to convince the host to invest in a possibly competing talk show for one of their guests.

If anything this woman is a professional example for all people to believe in themselves no mater how worthless they are. She believes in herself and has marketed herself to the limit and has a big bank account to fall back on every time she is shot down by someone or something. Could this skinny girl actually be an inspiration to all of us? Ugh.

　

They are at it again. Yes our ultra rich and shifty politicians are creating a utopia for themselves in case of disaster now all over the United States. I wrote about a place that was built in the Ozark region back on December 12, 2012. The Ozark is the region that encompasses parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. The post began, are you invited? Well we still aren’t invited. Now the Stock Market has reached it’s all time high and the profits are going right in the pockets of the wealthy and they are protecting themselves in case of disaster.

FEMA has underground bunkers or housing in Mount Weather, Virginia. A place for the Washington elite to hide in case of a bombing or natural disaster on the surface of the earth. It is a big fortress where thousands of people can be housed for continuity of the government. Keep our government running while cities possibly burn above ground. Yes a select few will be safe while the rest of us are left behind to deal with the chaos. Entrances to underground military bases have been located all over America.

In the middle of Kansas some civilians are also preparing for an extreme disaster. On old military bases there are underground silos that used to house nuclear bombs pointed at Russia. Now, they are being converted to be underground shelters. They are being marketed as Survival Condos. These are places that used to house intercontinental nuclear missiles. If they were to reproduce such a super structure like this today it would cost 50 to 60 million dollars. The silos reach down to 184 feet into the ground. The walls and the overhead cap are nine feet thick.

Just one half of the door weighs 150,000 pounds. It is made of concrete and goes down 14 stories deep. This structure would survive almost anything you could imagine. They have a pool level on the bottom then a mezzanine level, a workout gym level, six living area levels, a farming level to grow fruits and vegetables under artificial lighting, even a level to raise animals for food consumption, and water purifying systems. A true self sustaining place for a period of time.

It is powered by wind turbines and geo thermal heat exchanges and is an incredibly energy efficient structure. The place offers so many comforts it is hard to believe that it is a place to avoid a disaster. The instability of government leaders in the world and the greed by the super wealthy is creating interest in these types of cautionary places to own. No one can ever feel save enough these days. Even our religious leaders decide to retire during the most sacred time of their religious year. Who can we turn to for stability and comfort in our lives anymore?

It is a known fact that in case of a disaster there are not enough shelters to house the billions of people that inhabit the earth so the selective planning occurs and it is based solely on power and wealth as to who gets to be saved first. Over the last 10 years the U.S. government has been on a shelter building boom. It is even believed that an airport was built over a giant shelter to act as a lid over the place. They are built with a concept of balanced survivability.

They are being designed to be able to withstand being completely submerged under water for 100 hours. Also, to be able to withstand fires to 1,200 degrees of heat for 6 days. The largest know bunker is funded by government money and is about 300,000 square feet large. It’s construction has largely gone undetected because at the time of construction an airport was being constructed right above it.

Many people believe it is the Denver Airport that went way over budget when construction of the place was in full force. What is odd about the new airport is that it is 25 miles farther away from the city. That is 19 miles farther away than the old airport. They have a fueling system with more tanks for fuel than any airport would ever need and an extensive fiber optic system, The place is much more than terminals and airstrips. The place has underground tunnels and is just about twice the size of Manhattan with no construction above the land. Just a lot of open land. There is 58,000 square miles of vacant land surrounding the airport.

　

　

　

　

It is 125 years old this year. It is National Geographic. Yes, I remember the yellow trimmed picture magazines of my youth where it was my first glimpse of a bare naked chest of a woman. It was also my glimpse into adventure and the vast parts of the world. All I knew at the time were the blocks of houses on my way to school. There is a National Geographic channel devoted to video adventures although there are a few unusual red neck reality shows there too.

Advancements in exploration have gone high teck and with new types of surveillance technology available in this century it is estimated that more artifacts of the past will be able to be discovered more easily. In Mongolia today there are explorers that are still looking for the lost Tomb of the ancient conqueror Genghis Khan. He was born called Temujin and was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia.

It is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. There are places there that have not even been walked upon in 800 years. Now explorers have tools that have never been available before. Now, to decide where to look for the tomb there is social media. Yes, on Facebook and other media sites arm chair explorers can join in the search . Detailed satellite images are posted on line and you can help in the research of the origins of the pinpointed place.

Geologists may suggest where something man made may be hidden. They don’t even know what the tomb even looks like. Once a possible place has been decided upon they go there on horseback and survey the site. The Mongolian government does not allow digging at archaeological sites. They now use technology instead of shovels there. Things like Ground Penetrating Radar and small remote controlled air craft are used to survey the selected areas. The images are analyzed in a 3 D environment in labs in the University of California in San Diego.

There are many Explorers who are funded by National Geographic to continue their explorations. People like Lucy Cooke, Kenny Broad, Barrington Irving, Kakani Katija, Daniel Raven Ellison, Sylvia Earle, Paul Salopek, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Sarah McNair-Landry, Annie Griffiths, Aziz Abu Sarah, and Enric Sala. People think of National Geographic as just a magazine or a TV channel but exploration is what has always defined the society.

Founders including Alexander Graham Bell started the National Geographic Society 125 years ago. Since then they have funded more than 10,000 scientific research projects throughout the years. We need this organization because they fund risky projects where success is not guaranteed; that is the nature of exploration and so what if it failed; at least the effort was made to unveil the secrets of our past.

The 21^st Century should be the greatest stage of exploration in the history of mankind because now they are using DNA testing to map the history of the human race from it’s origins in East Africa. The answer to the question of how all the different races evolved could be answered with this new research tool. Samples of people’s DNA are presently being taken from people from all over the world in an effort to find clues and to map where and when our ancestors traveled.

Genetic markers are being studied which are tiny changes found in your DNA sequence. When you share something, you have found an ancestor of yours. They have found 9 races in the world that are ancestral source populations that are being mixed together to find the people we see today. When you think National Geographic you don’t think of DNA sampling but studying gene geography is interesting too.

　

　

Corruption is everywhere. The border agents have been stepping over the line in their behavior by taking bribes and letting illegal’s cross into our country. It makes Americans who live near our borders not feeling so secure. Yes, we are talking about our Mexican borders not our Canadian borders. Life is good in Canada; they have no need to come to America illegally.

The bribes are taking place along the border between Arizona and Mexico. John Ladd owns 14,000 acres of land along the border line that has become more valuable besides ranching cattle. It is valuable land that is a highway for millions of illegal people to cross into America. For Mexico’s illegal immigrants and drug cartels, his land is a gateway to America. Crossing his land is only a 3 mile walk to the highway and they are soon on a ride to anywhere in America.

Five generations of Ladd’s have lived there. In 1894 the family arrived in Arizona in their covered wagons. Now, more than a century later John watches from his kitchen window people walking across his land to the highway. They are undeterred by the high border fences and government surveillance cameras. Especially undeterred by the border agents in their SUV’s riding along the fences. Many of them have been bribed to look the other way.

John believes that about 500,000 people have been caught crossing his land. In the past few years the number of Mexicans and people from other nationalities caught on his property is down but he says there is more illegal traffic coming onto his land in trucks. They wire cut the top of the fence and set ramps over the fence and just drive over the fence with their cars filled with drugs. Sometimes he wakes up to see a car stuck on top of the fence in the morning because it slid off the ramp.

The drug cartels are in control of the Mexican side of the border. The American border control agents are taking bribes on this side of the fence to do nothing to stop the traffic. Ladd does not see any chasing and little deterrent of the movement of people and drugs on his land. He doesn’t even feel safe on his property. There is so much money involved in the people trade and the drug trade that it is impossible to stop it from all happening. The bribe money alone is a large amount of money.

More than 40,000 custom agents and patrol officers guard our nation’s borders and the vast majority are honest but the drug cartels are using cold war tactics. They are using money, sex and drugs to convince officers to work with them to help get their products across the border to our country. The FBI has a task force to help root out corruption. In 2007 there were only 6 border task forces; today there are 24.

In San Ysidro California at the U.S. Mexico border lies the largest land port of entry in the world. It processes 110,000 people a day. There have been more than just a few bad officers. A new report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General lists 358 convictions of Customs and Border Protection Employees since 2004. Complaints of misconduct are up 77%.

The case of Michael Anthony Gilliland who was convicted in 2006 was outrageous. He was a Senior Agent who taught all the new people. At the port of entry he was found to be passing many loads of cars and trucks filled with illegal people. He pled guilty to taking $120,000 in bribes to let people into this country illegally. Many people pay these officers 5 to $8,000 per person to be let into the country.

These officers make about $60,000 per year in salary and was bringing home an additional $30,000 per truck or car. Searches of the officers homes found bags of cash everywhere in their homes. The Agency is now taking increased checks to watch our own border patrol agents. They are now required to take lie detector tests but only once upon hiring. Really? Is that all?

　

If you are a Whisky drinker you might be interested in taking a nice tasting trip this year. You can’t beat the taste of a good Scottish whisky. There is the Islay Single Malt Whisky that is aged for over 10 years before swallowed. Brands like Ardbeg or Aphroaig are distinctively Scottish. But to true scotch drinkers just where the whisky comes from makes all the difference.

On the edge of Scotland’s coastline lies a small island called Islay. Islay, is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura and around 40 kilometers north of the Irish coast. The island is inhabited by 3,457 people. It is the best place to quietly disappear for a while from everyone and just have fun in a beautiful romantic place.

It has sleepy harbors and flowery meadows and ancient villages that surround castles yet this peaceful virtually uninhabited place is part of a global industry. Where Jamaica is known for its Rums and Madeira is known for its Sherry’s this island is famous for its unique tasting of Scotch whiskies known as Isla Malts. Even with only about 3 to 4 thousand residents, the island is home to 9 major brands of whisky 2 of which were already mentioned here but there are the Laphroaig, Caolila, Bowmore, Kilchoman, Lagavulin and other brands made on the island. Here whisky distilleries are thriving.

One of the older distilleries is the brand Ardbeg. The process is complicated. They have mills that date back to 1921 that they work twice a day and the distillation process has not changed much since then. All they are allowed to use there is water, malted barley and yeast. It is the only things they put in the whiskey. The yeast and water are mixed with the barley then fermented for a couple of days in enormous casks known as Mash Tuns. They then work them with 23,500 liters in each wash batch before it is distilled in giant copper stills and finally aged in wooden barrels for 10 years. I always wondered why anyone would go through so much trouble just to get a little buzz on.

Ultimately it is the malted barley they use there that separates the wheat. So, why is the whisky so great there? You can smell it. It has a peat smoke richness about it that creates a heavily peated malt. It is the heaviest peated malt of any whiskey in Scotland. So, what is peat? It is the soil on the island that is usually burned as a fuel in Scotland’s Western isles.

Thousands attend various tasting and classes at the various distilleries. The depth of flavor from the whiskeys from this region is unmatched with anything else from anywhere else. The sales figures are the best proof of worthiness of anything you might want to sell. The United States alone imported more than 1 Billion dollars of the stuff. Fans of the festival might argue that once you are back home, it is not quite as much fun to drink it. So, grab your girl and take her to the festival this summer and enjoy.

He is the first African-American man in history to be nominated for Oscars in two different roles in the same year. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the movie Collateral and as Best Actor in the movie called Ray. That was back in 2005. Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for Best Actor when he played Ray Charles in Ray but acting is just one of his many talents. He was a star on his own TV sitcom and In Living Color, he has songs that made it to number one on the pop charts, is an accomplishes pianist and is a talk radio host. Now he is 45 years old and music has taken him from leading a church choir in a small Texas town to being in Hollywood’s finest musical films.

His most recent film was a starring role in Django Unchained where he plays a slave turned Bounty Hunter on a quest to find and free his wife. The film is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and it is gruesome, disturbing but funny at the same time. What is great about Jamie is that he is unafraid to redefine himself in the entertainment field. Most people who try to do something different from what they got famous for usually fail and loose their popularity. Not Jamie;he just makes us want to look even closer at what he is doing now.

He was born Eric Marlon Bishop and was an adopted grandson who was the class clown and teacher’s pet throughout school that also managed yo be the star of the high school football team. His town was a safe town where there wasn’t any shootings unless someone felt like shooting at a squirrel. They love him so much in Terrell Texas, his home town, that they celebrated Jamie Foxx Day in 2009.

Jamie received a scholarship to study classical piano but 2 years later on a dare he tried performing stand up comedy and took on the name Jamie Foxx to sound more female because women comics were treated better than male comics. Soon he became famous for his comedy and his wild parties. At one of his parties there was a woman who only wore high heals and her cell phone. Some of his party boy moves were seen in his 1997 movie called Booty Call.

He moved on to better quality movies like the 1999 movie called Any Given Sunday directed by Oliver Stone where he showed off his Football skills to his coach played by Al Pacino. After meeting Oprah and Sidney Poitier he calmed down and took his image more seriously and appeared in more movies alongside other accomplished actors. His Grandmother who raised him died just months before he received his greatest accomplishment, his Oscar but he says that his first love is his love of music.

　

Appearing with him at this year’s Oscars was his beautiful 19 year old daughter Corinne Bishop. Foxx had a daughter in 1994 with a woman named Christen. Foxx and Corinne’s mother are no longer together but Jamie stays tight with his daughter and she has been his date to many of the award functions this year. He also has a younger daughter named Annalise. Bishop isn’t working on getting into acting or singing like her father just yet but has been working as a model and it’s easy to see why, she is beautiful. But with her father’s acting chops, we can’t imagine it will be long before Bishop herself is starring in movies.

There are three Gods in your life that you must worship. Make sure you are in good standing with them or your life as you know it can be ruined forever. Their names are Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. They are in charge of your credit information. Make sure what they know about you is accurate because a mistake on your credit report can cost you money.

A faulty or bad credit report can increase the interest rate you pay on your loans, prevent you from getting a mortgage or buying a car, landing a good job or even getting a security clearance. It is not uncommon to be turned down from something you want because you have a bad credit report. Whether we like it or not much of what we do in our daily lives is monitored, collected and sold to interested businesses so, your credit report is important to others as well as to you.

A new government study has been released that indicates that as many as 40 Million people have mistakes on their credit reports. 20 Million of you have significant mistakes. Mistakes are nearly impossible to get removed from your records. Don’t be afraid to sue the credit Gods. They would rather pay you then clean up the messes. They make more money on bad reports than good credit reports. A settlement here or there means nothing to their bottom line.

Consumer credit reporting is a 4 Billion dollar per year industry dominated by the three large companies that I call our Gods. They keep files on 200 Million Americans that track our financial transactions. They make their money by gathering our spending information and selling it to people we do business with. Companies like banks, merchants and employers. They use the information to make judgments about our creditworthiness and reliability.

An 8 year study about these 3 Gods has been released by the Federal Trade Commission looking at the liability of these 3 companies. What was found was that 1 out of 5 Americans has an error on their credit report and 1 out of 10 Americans have errors on their credit reports that might lower their score. What company or industry can thrive where a 20% error rate would be acceptable? Why are we all being held hostage by the credit Gods with their faulty information about us?

Federal law from the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires these companies to do a reasonable investigation into your possible errors being reported and they are doing nothing. Every day people are complaining about paid bills listed as delinquent or closed accounts listed as open or bad debts listed for other people with similar names or similar Social Security Numbers.

The problem with the Gods is that they won’t fix the mistakes. Eight million people a year report mistakes about their credit report that requires a visit to the Equifax, Trans Union and Experian websites. When you go there they want to sell you your report and do not want to settle your problem. The toll free number will connect you to someone on a far away continent who will just tell you to fill something out on line. Even if you mail your evidence of a problem to the P.O. Box number they provide it is unlikely you will get a response.

The operators that do answer a phone call to so called handle your dispute are likely from India or Chile. These are foreigners that even if you tried to subpoena them for a law suit would not and could not appear because they are foreigners. They are employees of the Gods hired as Dispute Agents and are required to talk to 90 dispute people per day.

They are NOT investigators, they have no way to investigate any claim, they cannot even call you back. They do not have dial able phones and cannot e-mail you back. They have no decision making power to agree with you that a mistake in your favor even exists. All they can do is read your dispute and reduce it to a 2 digit code that would indicate something like late or unsolved and sent back to the creditor like Macy's or whoever you owed money to and they were always favored and were right in claiming you owed them money.

Remember the Gods make money from people with bad credit. They make no money from good people with no bad credit. In fact if you pay all your bills you are often considered as someone with NO credit. So, the answer is that if you have a bad credit report that has faulty information on it. Sue the Gods. They will settle for millions of dollars in your favor just to get rid of your annoying claims. They are making Billions of dollars off of all of you listed with bad credit.

Lawyers have sued on behalf of people seeking to clear the false statements on their reports. There is no way to get their problem solved. Just collect your settlement and buy stuff cash. Our government officials are doing nothing to get after the Gods. Yes, legal corruption exists and is thriving in this country right now.