Illinois Long Term Care Insurance - Do You Need an Illinois Long Term Care Insurance Policy?

It is very important for all residents of Illinois to evaluate their needs for an Illinois long term care insurance policy. All adult residents of Illinois, both young and old, should seriously research this important type of insurance coverage if they do not want to have to unduly burden their loved ones in the event of a debilitating disease, go into bankruptcy due to medical bills, or worse. Finding long term care insurance is a serious issue but there are certainly some things that all IL residents can do to find a cheap Illinois long term care insurance policy.

Iowa Floods: Reconsidering Flood Insurance

This is not how I like to get reminded of things, but sometimes that’s just how it goes. I hope all those out there affected by the floods are at least safe. A few months ago I wrote about buying flood insurance even if you are not required to by your mortgage lender. This means you are outside the 100-year floodplain, but could still be in the 500 year floodplain (1 in 500 chance each year, or 0.2%). Check if you are in a flood plain here. We got quotes, but never actually got around to buyin

Carnival of Money Stories #64 - Time to Listen to Others Edition

Carnival of Money Stories #64 - Time to Listen to Others Edition All of us have many stories to tell but when do we ever spend time to read or listen to other people’s stories?  Well, here’s your chance with the 64th edition of Carnival of Money Stories!  As always, there are many great stories for us to learn from as long as we are willing to do so! Editor Choice Terry Dean presents From a Sale to An Experience. What are you doing to turn a sale into an experience? Dorian Wales presents Th

Service Member's Group Life Insurance (SGLI)

SGLI is a low cost program of group term life insurance available automatically to all service members on active or inactive duty for training and members of the Military Reserves. These policies are automatically activated for the current maximum coverage amount of $250,000 dollars, unless a soldier or sailor opts out in writing. A member of the service can elect lower coverage or no coverage at all by completing VA Form SGLV-8286. Term Life Insurance coverage is available for spouses as well; dependent children are automatically insured for $10,000 dollars. In addition, there is an additional elected coverage option for up to $100,000 for a spouse.

Bad Investment? Losing The Million Dollar House, Literally

Last weekend, we got a chance to catch up with some family friends (Mr. and Mrs. B.) during a nice sit down dinner with our family. We got to swapping stories on real estate and business for a little bit, and it was as invigorating as we always expect it to be. The conversation, however ventured onto some awkward territory when we inquired about our friends’ latest real estate investment, which was their second home â€" a dream home at that, sitting right at the edge of the California coast. It w

Levees on Rio Grande Need Repairs

Joel Gay over at the New Mexico Independent, for which I also write, has a great piece up about the state of the levees on the Rio Grande river.ALBUQUERQUE -- The thick earthen levees that were built decades ago to prevent the Rio Grande from flooding into Albuquerque are so old and in such poor condition that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says they need to be rebuilt. The estimated cost to local and federal taxpayers: $120 million.That seems like an obscene amount of money, but in the grand

McCain’s mistake: Putting economic issues on the front-burner

John McCain recently acknowledged, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” That’s a perfectly accurate self-assessment, but the Republican presidential hopeful is in a bit of a jam â€" he hoped to ride into the White House merely by being wrong about Iraq. Now that the economy is the top issue on voters’ minds, McCain has no choice but to at least pretend like he cares about the issue and has a clue as to what he’s talking about. Yesterday, then, was a big

Monoline Malaise

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism had a good post on the financial guarantors. It dealt with MBIA’s new refusal to make a capital contribution to its subsidiaries. Here’s the company’s take on the matter. And here was my comment at her (Yves’) blog: David Merkel said… Were I Dinallo, I would refuse to allow them to set up a new monoline. He has that authority for his own state. I might also take the existing companies into conservation. Then, let MBIA take their spare capital and try to set up a

Scott Burns on His New Book, The Housing Market, and Gas Prices… (an Interview)

Scott Burns is a busy man. However, he’s not too busy for AFM readers, which is a good thing! Below is an email interview I had with Scott about what’s going on in his life. If after reading the interview, you have questions, please leave a comment and I’ll see if I can get Scott to stop by and answer them. Enjoy! It has been two years since I last interviewed you. What have you been up to? I’m still writing my syndicated column. But I left the Dallas Morning News and started AssetBuilder, a

Big Wave Trampoline: Slippery When Wet

If underwater pogo-sticking isn’t your style of extreme summer fun, there are plenty of other ways to get your dose of cool water in the summer heat while putting your precious body at risk. Trampolines aren’t the safest of activities even when they aren’t soaked in a layer of fall-inducing water, but add a little bit of slip-and-slide fun, and you have yourself a toy made for the most daring of kids. The 13′ Big Wave Trampoline mixes the fun of jumping up and down over and over again at uns

Mathematics

How important is mathematics in the rearing of a child? Speaking personally, mathematics shaped me. The son of poor working class parents, living in a basement apartment in a strange town without relatives at a time when six years of world war had impoverished the nation, I was fortunate in having a father who believed in education. He took a second job to pay the £7 a term for me to go to a small private school at the age of 4. I could already read by the age of 2, though my reading matter was

My Life Is So Much More Fascinating Now, Here's Why:

Are you or aren't you the type of person who likes to read about other people's weekends??? And do you also like a few extra question marks after a leading question??? (why not???) Good. Because this is a little photo essay about my weekend. First of all, at the risk of losing our house insurance on Retro House Chup had to build a trusty handrail off of our back steps. He went the extra mile and painted it green. My question? Who uses handrails these days??? Second of all, I am sad to report

When to Ask For Help

The “refining fire” I mentioned earlier this week has lessened thanks to the generosity of our church family. We had an unexpected bill from our auto insurance company, who had decided that we were a credit risk and put us on a six month plan instead of a monthly payment! I learned later from our elder, who is also an insurance agent for a different company, that they shouldn’t have done that to a 10-year + loyal customer. Well, I paid the bill out of fear and was left very short for the month

Steal This Painting

Matthew Yglesias goes on vacation and his blog gets culture. Guest-blogger Alyssa notes a Smithsonian magazine list of the top 10 art heists of all time. Only three of those cases also pop up on the FBI's top-10 list, which just goes to show that the black market for art is storied. Alyssa writes, "Prints are cool, but it's fun to imagine having the real thing tucked away to look at." But that's only ever been the established motive in one case: the theft of Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wel

Breast Cancer Awareness: Help Make June Survivor Month!

Before we go straight to the point, we understand that some of you had read this article on breast cancer before. This is, in fact, the third time that you will be reading it. Nevertheless, we do not mind posting it again, because breast cancer is not a plaything. If we do nothing about it, our lives can be destroyed, but if we act now, our lives can be saved. Breast cancer occurs when cancer cells start to develop in the breast tissues. In the recent years, breast cancer has become rampant

Car insurance for burlesque performers - aargh!

Ok, so I know this may seem like a weird thread, but it is burlesque-related, honest! Recently my car insurance came up for renewal, but as I'm no longer going to be a student, using the car for work etc, I've had to make some changes to the policy. So, I decided to scout around a bit and see what kind of quotes I came up with and you wouldn't believe the problems I ran into! 3 different agencies turned me down because of my occuapation (working in the Arts) and when I asked why, I was told b

Pelosi et al want to install the unelectable Barack

Friday and Puerto Rico. This is a big and important primary even if Nancy Pelosi is saying the race is already settled. Nancy Pelosi is not the ruler of the universe. She's not even the ruler of the Democratic Party. The people are the rulers, or they are supposed to be, in what is supposed to be the People's Party. So if Nancy Pelosi attempts to hijack the process and install her crush Barack Obama as the nominee, she's not just sending a message that the voters don't matter to the party, sh

So That There is a Tomorrow

Even though tomorrow never saw the light of day for my Gujarati dal made with kokum, I like to think and work towards a tomorrow for all the important things in life. And that is what I have been busy with. A brighter tomorrow. At least that is how I like to look at it. Life has been full of surprises over the past couple of months. I touched briefly on how cancer has touched our lives again on A Mad Tea Party, which has since reverted to being the fabulous blog it used to be, heart and soul in

Guest Post

My massage therapist Rose emails out a monthly newsletter. This month’s newsletter contained the following article she wrote on health care and stress. Since I liked the article so much, and both topics are subjects I am interested in, I asked Rose if I could post it. I got her permission to do so. It is called: My Two Cents I watched a documentary on PBS recently, called “Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth”. My students will tell you that I am very interested in seeing how our countr

Obama as Robin Hood: Why Soaking the Rich Doesn't Work

For months now, Barack Obama has been campaigning as a latter-day Robin Hood. He touts a vision of an America in which he will take from the evil rich and give liberally (pun fully intended) to the worthy poor: John McCain has served his country with honor, and I respect that service. But for two decades, he has supported policies that have shifted the burden on to working people. And his only answer to the problems created by George Bush’s policies is to give them another four years to fail. J

Downsize for Equity in Retirement Years

If you’re close to retirement and have a lot of equity locked up in your home, consider downsizing as a means of supplementing your savings and reducing your overhead. The cost to maintain a large home in your later years can often be very high with increasing utilities, homeowners insurance, and property taxes so it might make sense to move into a smaller home with a more manageable space. A side benefit of downsizing is that you might be able to recapture the equity you’ve built up and put it

Do All Women Have the Right to Become Mothers?

Several thousand dollars for fertility treatment? Even as I gasped in shock at the high cost, the subject of the documentary film I was watching exhaled in relief because she was able to afford it. "This is worth it," she told her partner, and I could tell by the emotion in her voice that she meant it. But I wondered how low-income and poor people were able to afford infertility treatment when the cost is so high and coverage so limited. I know a lot of people who intend to have a baby but

The Green Metal Box

An extended excerpt from Charlie Sykes: On this Memorial Day, I want to do some personal remembering. A year ago on May 1, as some of you may know, my mother died. She was 87. A year ago today May 25, I found a green metal file box among the things we were able to save. Inside was the story of her first husband, a young man named Lambert Hruska, who joined the army in the months before WWII, rose to the rank of captain with the 3rd Infantry Seventh Army, was awarded the Silver Star and bron

Kirsten Dunst's Innocent Claims of 'Depression' Rehab Quickly Shot Down

Taking a break from shooting All Good Things on the Upper West Side, Kirsten Dunst tells E!’s Marc Malkin that she didn’t go to Cirque Lodge to get treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, but simply because she was depressed. “I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself. I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too. But I didn’t know where to go. My doctor recommended Cirque Lodge.” Except Cirque Lo

What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 19

The Knowledge That You Are Only as Good as Your Next Verdict. I stole this idea from a friend in Atlanta who told me about it over a decade ago. While I disagree with the notion some might take from this statement (that a lawyer has to win or has done a poor job), I wholeheartedly agree with what I know was intended by the statement: great trial lawyers do not rest on their laurels. There is no doubt that some percentage of lawyers who have had a few victories start to believe their own pr

Average? I Like Average, if It’s My Average. (Part I)

Okay, same drill as my pieces for my worst losses, but this time I chose the ten most average investments of mine in terms of dollars earned. Remember, one of my key disciplines is rebalancing. Honeywell Honeywell was short and simple.  I felt it was out of favor, and I bought some.  Six months later, I had cheaper stocks to buy, so Honeywell was gone. Stone Energy Stone Energy was a weird one.  As you will note, the initial purchase and final sale prices aren’t that much different.  In

Revival, Faith Healing, and Healing Prayer

The whole discussion about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival has led me to think back a great deal about the Brownsville Revival. There were and are a number of concerns while at the same time I don’t want to be a blanket critic. But I have personally seen people seriously hurt by the excesses that tend to accompany a mass revival movement. Activity involves risk, so when I give cautions about risks one should not assume that I am saying to avoid the whole movement and everyone in it becau

Re: Profiting from getting lost?

By: A Person In this case I don't know if the boat crew 'forgot' about them or just couldn't find them We always dived with flourescent marker buoys. It was another thing to keep track of while diving but it made the boat crew's job much easier. You lose sight of bubbles very easily and if you do get separated by a couple of hundred metres in rough sea it can be very difficult to spot the heads because you have no idea which direction to look. Keeping track of marker buoys is a whole lot easie

Vinod Khosla: Setting The Story Straight

To my surprise, this morning I found myself cited by the Wall Street Journal as a strong advocate of subsidies for food-based ethanol, and as a recipient of "federal dole" who ought to "take a vow of embarrassed silence." While I appreciate the Journal's foray into fiction writing (and I'd love to discuss my status on the dole with my accountant, who recently filed my taxes), I would like to clarify a few of the facts and offer a more rounded view of biofuels and ethanol in general. A few fact

Understanding Salary Caps and Why The NFL opted out

OK, maybe I can't say for certain why the NFL opted out of their current CBA. But what I can speak to is the problem with salary caps as they are structured in the NHL, NFL and NBA, so that sports fans can understand why the NFL is doing what it is doing and why it could and probably will happen in any league governed by a salary cap. The basic structure of a salary cap is that the revenues of the league are aggregated into a total pool, call it football, basketball or hockey related income. E

Staying Motivated With Personal Finance

As we all know, mastering or even just managing our personal financial situations is a long and tedious road. We make decisions that affect our personal financial situation several times each day. From the clothes we wear to the car we drive, to the lunch we eat..it all affects our finances. Whether we like to think about it or not, we cannot escape the reality that we will never be completely free from the day to day management of our finances. The increasing stack of bills piling up in the m

THE FINTAG NEWSLETTER @ 23 May 2008

FINTAG COMMENT Doctor Who? One of the UK's endearing and probably oldest running TV show features a Scotsman pretending to be an English Doctor who jumps between time in an old police box. Nobody knows his real name either. Being in such good company, I know what it is to live a lie. Hedge Fund managers are unable to market themselves in the same way as a retail mutual fund and so have to live behind password protected websites and office suites with no name on the door. Over the years the wor

Why Do You Need A Critical Illness Insurance?: In Critical Insurance We Get All Expenses Of Medicals ,mortgage Insurance Quotes Is A Insurance In Which We Claim In Cases Of Critical Illness, Death

We may all live longer these days but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan for unforeseen events; which is why it is essential so insurance quotes be considered from a young age. After all, you are providing for the financial needs of your family in the future if something untoward happens where you will no longer be around to help them in person. Studies have shown there is a strong possibility that at some stage in your life you will suffer from a critical illness so most of the insurance quo

Why Do You Need A Critical Illness Insurance?: In Critical Insurance We Get All Expenses Of Medicals ,mortgage Insurance Quotes Is A Insurance In Which We Claim In Cases Of Critical Illness, Death

We may all live longer these days but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan for unforeseen events; which is why it is essential so insurance quotes be considered from a young age. After all, you are providing for the financial needs of your family in the future if something untoward happens where you will no longer be around to help them in person. Studies have shown there is a strong possibility that at some stage in your life you will suffer from a critical illness so most of the insurance quo

Why Do You Need A Critical Illness Insurance?: In Critical Insurance We Get All Expenses Of Medicals ,mortgage Insurance Quotes Is A Insurance In Which We Claim In Cases Of Critical Illness, Death

We may all live longer these days but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan for unforeseen events; which is why it is essential so insurance quotes be considered from a young age. After all, you are providing for the financial needs of your family in the future if something untoward happens where you will no longer be around to help them in person. Studies have shown there is a strong possibility that at some stage in your life you will suffer from a critical illness so most of the insurance quo

Timing, GINA is Law and the Future of Genomic Medicine

So some very important things came to pass today. All of these things will have a major impact on the future of Genomic Medicine. First and foremost....I have a delivery system for Personalized Medicine. Physician based care is the only way for this future. It may not be sexy enough for Kleiner Perkins, but we have some very strong allies now. After the best meeting I have had in my career so far I headed to a very quiet space for the webinar. The webinar is a demonstration of how powerful th

Dad Update - 5/20

Well, I cant say good or bad yet. Dad was to have surgery last Thursday, but had some urgent complications taken care of before his surgery. They got to the hospital on Sunday (Mother's Day), and on Monday someone came in and requested to look in his month. Well see in the past he had Endocarditis. Its to do with bacterial infection causing damage to the heart valves, and hence his heart surgery in 2004 for him to have a heart valve put in. Well, its actually blood poisoning, so they wanted to c

Good Mom

Cathy’s been on my list of "good moms" for a variety of reasons, but this post adds another jewel to her crown. Her child missed a day of school for reasons beyond her control, and she was advised by the school to "just say that he’s sick" next time. In a day when attendance policies are already rigid enough to cause even the best parents some consternation, having the school tell parents to just lie about it is entirely counterproductive. See, it’s stuff like that that got us into the overbe

Santa Cruz Mountain Wildfires

The smell of wildfire is slowly permeating our home this morning. “I thought I smelled burned toast,” my daughter tells me. I feel my chest tightening and take an extra puff of my inhaler before we get our shoes on for our mile walk up and down the hill to school. When I open the front door to the foggy morning â€" the air is so still, it’s eerie - the acid smell makes my nose wrinkle up. I try not to breathe deeply and wonder if we should really be driving, to avoid inhaling this contami

Early Detection And Breast Cancer

It is generally accepted that by the time a cancer is found by mammography or palpated during a clinical breast exam, the cancer has been growing for 8-10 years. What if we could have been alerted to the problem as it was developing, rather than wait till it is large enough to be seen by the naked eye? Would that be of interest to you? There exists a technology that can detect an issue YEARS before a tumor can be seen on X-ray or palpated during an exam. This technology has been approved by th

10 Tips for Minimizing Life Insurance Costs

After my friend's husband died last week, I wrote about figuring out how much life insurance you need and what kind of policy you should get. Since I've hopefully spurred at least some of you to get new policies if you need them, I figured I'd better share some tips for saving money on your premiums: Buy term. - It's much more affordable than whole life. (But find out why you may want or need a whole life policy.) Shop around. - While you want to make sure you get coverage with a reputable compa

I Suppose I Should Buy Life Insurance Now…

Up until now, there are two reasons I don’t have any privately-bought life insurance. For one, as I’ve mentioned nobody is actually dependent on my income. Wife is doing fine, don’t have any kids yet. We also have 1x annual salary’s worth of life insurance as a benefit from our employers, and she’ll get all my retirement account funds if something happens to me. The other reason is that I know that life insurance is priced based on tiers of health, and I’ve been secretly thinking that I can bac

Go ahead, ask.

Go ahead, ask. How much does it cost to spend an hour and a half in the ER? 2905.48. That’s not including the doctor who bills separately. I have two choices according to the hospital. Pay lots of money each month for nine months, or a little each month for three f’ing years. I’m making a third choice; when i get my tax refund next year, it’s going to whittle down the bill. I make one thousand more per year than the max to qualify for the poor people’s program that pays the bill for you. I

Underwater Fantasea

I wanted to take a more serious look at underwater photography, so I did! I LOVE WATER! I also love photography and I’ve always wanted to mix the two. After much research I decided to go with the Fantasea Underwater Housing for my older Nikon D70 DSLR camera. Sure I’ve got newer better cameras like my D300, but none that I was willing risk taking underwater for the first time (even with the included flood insurance). If I lost my D70 it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but if I lost my D300

What You Need To Know When Getting An Auto Loan: Automotive Acounting Software Program Will Provide Details For What You Need To Get An Auto Loan.

Although some people have enough money to buy a car from savings, the vast majority of us will have to arrange some form of finance like an auto loan if we want a nice new car. Most people are unaware but a car loan is a secured loan on the car being purchased; the security required for the loan will reduce as the risk decreases with each monthly premium. After checking out how much your budget is you can start looking for cars within that price range and this is where the internet can help as

beating the drum

I know that I beat the ACTH drum loud & often. But the fact is...ACTH is day by day proving to be our miracle drug. Trevor's seizures have now been in remission for FIVE MONTHS! He is by no means *out of the woods* - as his continued abnormal brain waves reveal. And every day the back of my mind wriggles reminding me that the relapse rate is 50%. And that Trevor's risk is higher based on his subclinical activity. And I also know that ACTH fails 50% of the time. I have friends who have gain

Changes

Over the last few weeks I’ve really been rethinking a lot of the choices I’ve made during my previous two births. They were very different, and neither was what I wanted/want. With Alaina I was entirely too trusting of doctors instead of my own body, which resulted in an almost 19 hour labor with both narcotic and epidural pain relief, pitocin, and a fever for which I had to be treated on IV antibiotics before I was allowed to go home. My body just wasn’t ready and as a first time mom you don

THE FINTAG NEWSLETTER @ 20 May 2008

FINTAG COMMENT And now I am a passenger too. We have had some fun with GLG, but now the joke is on us. 130/30 funds, which are by there very nature a long only fund with short bits to help dullard long only managers move into the 21st Century, are in my book a complete farce. GLG are also a farcical hedge fund manager with a chaotic management structure and its star trader leaving for Switzerland. Well now the 'twixt shall meet. Today we look at 2 million leaving the UK, Buffet buying hand bag

Lessons Learned by Being Laid Off

On Friday, May 9, one of the vice presidents walked into my office and fired me. Little did I know that I was the second casualty of five (10% of the staff) to be laid off on that Black Friday. I’m headed to a better life with my own solo law firm. I have a small, growing client base, and new opportunities pop up every day. But I want to highlight a couple things I learned by being laid off. It was unexpected, shocking, surreal, and enraging. Here is what it taught me: Maintain your teeth L

emergency!

So, this is the whole story of what happened . . . Two weeks ago yesterday I woke up with extremely violent and painful stomach cramps, which got so bad that I went to emergency at a private hospital the next day. They took an x-ray of my abdomen, told me I had gastroenteritis (even though I had none of the other usual symptoms that accompany gastroenteritis) and sent me home with an enema and a special diet. By Friday I was in such agony that I couldn’t even eat anymore and went back to

It can be done!

We’re going to look at immigration today â€" but, to segue a moment, I’m listening to John McCrusty on CNN and I’ve discovered something … I can’t bear the sound of his voice; I can’t look at him, either. He and Dubby are morphing in my senses like a huge, gelatinous blob of primordial ooze â€" something you want to blow into a hanky and dispose of quickly. His speeches are ill-crafted, simplistic, bombastic and accusatory, and he’s clumsy in delivery. The stink of hypocrisy rolls off him when he i

Northern Virginia Long Term Care Insurance - Why You Need It Now

Northern Virginia Long-Term Care Insurance is a fairly recent phenomenon, due in part to the rapidly aging yet longer-living population, retirement planning of the "baby boomers", and quickly escalating long-term health and medical costs that aren't typically covered by traditional health insurance or Medicare. This type of insurance is especially helpful for those who develop disabilities or chronic (long-lasting) illnesses later in life. Long-term care services range from home- and community-based services to services provided in an assisted living, retirement or nursing facility - though these services are increasingly difficult to find and pay for in the fast-growing Northern Virginia counties of Loudoun, Fairfax and Arlington, much like other "close-in" suburban areas near major metropolitan centers.

Low Cost Health Insurance - Did You Consider These?

Did you consider all you should have while shopping for low cost health insurance? I’ll explore a few things you’ll do well to consider if you are really serious about reducing cost. Here they are… 1. There are state plans for kids that will save you much if you get them for your children. There are conditions that must be fulfilled before you are considered qualified for such. They will either be totally free or require very little payment so check to see if you are eligible. These state pla

Obama Speaks in Billings, MT

A transcription of Barack Obama’s speech from Billings, Montana as broadcast by Fox News: {Snarky remarks all mine.} Intros and thank yous not transcribed. There were those who said, ‘why are you running so soon? You can afford to wait.’ And I had to explain, I’m not running because of some long-held ambition or because I think it’s something I owed to me, I’m running because of what Dr. King called ‘the fierce urgency of now’ - the fierce urgency of now. And what he meant by that was there

Swimming in red tape

Andy Burnham should try it Labour minister Burnham wants us to get fit, he wants to trumpet the new sports facilities that they have made available for us, he’ll probably want to come to South Shields when Cllr. Iain Malcolm finds a developer to build our own super sea front water park swimming pool. Yet looking at this, council swimming pools are shutting at the rate of seven a month, with the mendacious excuse of under use generally cited as the reason for closure. They appear to be under u

Dental Insurance Plans Why Are They Necessary?

Dental Insurance Plans Why Are They Necessary? Daniel Millions If you are considering signing up for a dental plan, you probably first of all asked yourself whether it is really that important to do so and why. If you have a family and especially children, then, you just have to consider the amount of money that regular check-ups at the dentist’s take up every year, and this will motivate you to think of it seriously. With dental plans, it is possible to drastically cut off on these costs. D

Live in Your Investment

Live in Your Investment Posted by Brett Carman on 5/14/2008 at 9:27 AM Posted in Real Estate I am constantly trying to help my clients come up with creative ways to buy and sell real estate. When I get the type of client that I think would be interested, we talk about how a great way to get into real estate investing is to buy an income producing property that you can utilize for yourself, too! Whether you want to buy a residential or commercial property, you can get more favorable bank

Hunt For The Best Car Insurance

Hunt For The Best Car Insurance May 18, 2008 â€" 6:37 pm by Steve Johnson Car insurance can be a major expense, and we all want the best deal. But not every one knows how to find the best car insurance offers. They look for cheap auto insurance, but cheap isn’t necessarily a good value. If you wind up with inadequate coverage, that cheap insurance is going to turn out to be very expensive. If you want to get the best price on car insurance without giving up protection and peace of mind you nee

Be a Winner or a Loser, it’s Your Choice

The stock market is impartial as to whether you are a success or a failure in your share trading. The only person who cares (Apart from your bank manager) should be you. For it is only by the choices and decisions that you make in the future which will determine your success or demise in the share market. We will be dealing with realities today and actual truths. No pulling punches or soft soap. Just harsh plain facts. This article is about Choices or Decisions. Call them what you will, but

So You’re Thinking About Investing in Property

So You’re Thinking About Investing in Property   With the excess supply of properties on the market and prices in decline, maybe you’re one of the lucky few who can turn lemons into lemonade by taking advantage of the housing market downturn. For example, maybe you’ve got a walletful of spare change and you’re thinking about buying an investment property to rent out. Before you do, there are a few major things you should consider before taking the leap. First off, you’ll need to figure out ho

How to find a good visitor health insurance policy

by C. Ray Sondeo When we head out on vacation we do it to relax and get away from the hassles in life. The trouble there is that we don’t always leave trouble at home, sometimes it comes with us in the form of illness or injury. If the thought of this bothers you, then you probably want to find a visitors insurance policy. Visitors Insurance policies are like most other insurance policies. With the difference being that visitor insurance is for a set time period during vacations or travel. Thi

Tips On Finding The Right Visitor Health Insurance Policy

Tips On Finding The Right Visitor Health Insurance Policy by C. Ray Sondeo When we head out on vacation we do it to relax and get away from the hassles in life. The trouble there is that we don’t always leave trouble at home, sometimes it comes with us in the form of illness or injury. If the thought of this bothers you, then you probably want to find a visitors insurance policy. Insurance coverage for visitors is similar to other insurance coverage. The only real difference is that visitor i

are your car tires safe

are your car tires safe May 17th, 2008 Are Your Car Tires Safe? Writen by Joseph Kenny Do you know most of the car accidents are caused because of one or the other fault in the car tires? Most of the car accident reimbursement that the car owners have to pay to the accident victims or the loss they have to incur in terms of insurance money they get is all due to fault in car tires. So, when you go out to buy a car then with all the factors like performance, brand, price, appearance, comfort

Dubya Discovers Good Government?

(Completely tongue-in-cheek headline; don’t worry.) As I’ve noted in the past, one of the advantages (if you can call it that) of reading the Bucks County Courier Times is that you’re alerted to the very latest in wingnuttia, and the paper didn’t disappoint again recently, republishing this column from Cokie and Steve Roberts. And isn’t it such a shame â€" boo hoo! â€" that Dubya is sooo unhappy that “his proposals have died on Capitol Hill”? I’m sure “no one could have predicted” how that would h

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Johnny On-The-Make McCain gave a long speech in Ohio the other day, telling any Republican who would listen that he is the way and the light and the truth who will lead them from the wilderness of ethical filth they’ve chosen to live in since 1994 and that he will save the country in the process. He foretold the future, this balding little prophet. It’s an old messianic trick. Tell ‘em about tomorrow and make it look good so they will forget about the misery of today. Johnny wants to use it t

Fun week... learn about economics, Part V! by gimleteye

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UGH!

*bitching will ensue... please disregard if you're having a bad day* I'm in SUCH a hair rut right now! I'm not happy with my hair (for no good reason). It's you know, there, doing its thing... but it's gotten to that in-between point where it's no longer short but not quite long... and I'm at a loss. I can sorta put it up in a messy ponytail, which I'm sure looks horrible, but i could care less, quite frankly. I guess I should do a braidout or something. Plus I really want a proper haircut, but

Stock Analysis Coming Up

Hey everyone, I’d like to apologize for the lack of articles being posted here lately.  The new baby in the house really puts  a damper on things as far as “extra time” goes. So here is what I’ve been up to financially: Mining For Money I have a great analysis of a killer mining stock coming up.  It’s actually almost ready for you to read, but it has gotten rather lengthy and in-depth and I’m still not quite finished.  You’ll thank me for it later…if you don’t fall asleep reading it! Rental

Is Cheap Life Insurance Really A Sensible Option

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There is heaps of commentary on the Budget on a myriad of different websites - a couple I found of interest are here, here and here. Rather than write my views about it in detail here, I’ll just reproduce a speech I made in the Senate today during a debate (of sorts) about the Budget. I won’t add more to it now, beyond saying that I think that a lot of the rhetoric about the Budget’s impact on wider economic factors like inflation and interest rates is mostly overblown. I was bit surprised/dis

Long-Term Care Insurance - Why It's Important

Long-Term care insurance is usually the last type of insurance to get. Some of the reasons for this are that no one wants to think of themselves needing help with bathing, eating, etc. It is very easy to procrastinate or hope that your savings will be sufficient to meet any associated expenses that will occur. Long-Term care costs are increasing rapidly with the average cost of a Nursing home at over $70,000/year. Long-term care is typically by those who are frail and elderly, but statistics show that long-term care is required by anyone with a debilitating illness or injury who needs assistance to perform what is considered everyday functions, such as feeding oneself, bathing and getting dressed.

The good times are over? What good times?

We all want change and we all want Our Country back The Bank of England is warning the nation, Our Nation that the good times are over and that we had better prepare ourselves for a time of austerity. First of all what good times? There have been no good times in this nation for a long, long time. The British Public are nothing more than milk cows being farmed on an Island Prison for the benefit of the "elite" and to help pay, along with the rest of the White Western World for the creation of

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LCA-Vision (LCAV): Possible Value Trap Posted by Davy Bui on May 14th, 2008 in Stock Research I’m sure many of you are saying “No duh, Davy! The stock’s only down 10% today after cutting the dividend.” But I’ve actually been looking at this stock for a few months now. Generally, I usually don’t post about stocks on my watchlist unless they get added to the portfolio. That said, I bring up LCAV (and don’t forget HRZ) as a reminder of the importance of avoiding mistakes as opposed to the al

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As I was driving to work this morning, late as usual, I discovered that some idiot decided to turn on the ramp meter to the freeway.  For those of you who have not had experienced a metered on ramp let me explain… There is a stop light that makes you stop right before getting on the freeway.  I am sure it is supposed to help traffic or some other BS like that.  What it really does is force you to floor it to try to match the speed of the cars already on the freeway to be able to merge without

Reader Mail: How Do I Reduce Investment Fees?

It has been a while since I’ve opened up the mail bag to share. This time around, I received an email from Jeff looking for advice on how to reduce his investment fees. Here is the email: How do you go about investing in stocks without attracting fees. As it stands now - I give my money every month to a financial advisor and they invest my money for me. Now, my question is - I could go and invest in BMO or something else through my advisor - but I also cringe at the fees that I am likely to

The Best Way to Find the Most Affordable Life Insurance to Fit Your Needs

The Best Way to Find the Most Affordable Life Insurance to Fit Your Needs It is difficult to find which is the most suitable and affordable insurance to purchase from the numerous insurance policies available. Life insurance provides a source of income for the family to cope with the loss of income in the event of insurer’s death. This is a great help in taking care of the expenses and in paying of bills and final expenses. You have to understand how the insurance works for your benefit. Life

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Quit Smoking, For You, Your Family and Your Wallet! Just think of how much money you are spending on cigarettes. $3, $4, $6 a PACK? That is a lot for one pack of cigarettes. Now, how many packs do you go through a day? One, two, three, maybe more? If you smoked a pack a day, in one year you would spend almost $2000. Yes, Two Thousand dollars. Over $3600 if you smoked two packs a day. Sticker shock? What would you do with an “extra” $2000 dollars. Go on vacation with your family? Get th

I want to scare my parents with a suicide “attempt” what should i do to ensure no perm damage to me?

get really really drunk so that your not passed out but youre all f*cked up lie on the floor with a bottle of pills have fun dude Answer: I am sorry you are so unhappy. There are other more effective ways to get your parents to take you seriously. Be up front with your parents. Let them see your emotions. Cry if you are sad about how they are treating you. If you feel you can't talk to your parents, talk to your school guidance counselor about how you wish to “attempt” suicide. Please choos

A Happy Mother’s Day Greeting from Social Services

Two women, Michelle Hammond, and Lynn Sears, accompanied by a sheriff, Deputy Kemmerling, drove up to the house in two white cars, one a patrol car and the other a government vehicle. They asked to see Arthur, my son. Arthur is 30, but disabled. Arthur had left to take a short constitutional after having lunch, he had then been gone for about 15 minutes. I told them he would be back shortly and went inside, leaving them to wait on the driveway. The house is a cabin located in a small subdivisi

AIG Slumps…If One Believes in Numbers

Beware of companies that find new ways to value assets while they’re sinking. Where have we heard this story before? A company loses a bundle of money due to depressed values for its assets, and it says those valuations don’t really count. That’s what has happened to American International Group Inc. today in its conference call, and not for nothing, but instead of bouncing in the aftermath of the company’s chat with analysts, the stock is tailing off, lately hitting its worst level of the d

Sam Friedman on Climate Disclosure

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Marketized Health Care: Some Horrible Choices at the Margin

When I was in grad school in England, one of the dorms had a radiator that required the user to insert pound coins into a slot for heat. I found this bizarre at the time. . . but perhaps it will be a model for hospitals soon. As an article entitled "Cash Before Chemo" suggests, IV drips may as well include credit card readers in some hospitals: [For the effectively uninsured Mrs. Kelly,] [c]hemotherapy would continue for more than a year, as would requests for upfront payments. At times, she a

Reader Story: Beware of Scams and Pyramid Schemes

In the past, I’ve shared the story of the worst job I ever had. In a lot of ways, it felt like I was part of a pyramid scheme or multi-level marketing operation. I’ve been approached to participate in similar operations since then: once by my veterinarian (?!?) and once by a stranger in a book store. Sometimes you cannot tell a scam is a scam until you see it up close, and then the sunk-cost fallacy will sometimes force you to make a poor choice. GRS reader Bozemblem recently sent me this story

With Friends Like These

our family feels truly blessed indeed. I may have mentioned, once or twice in passing, that Parker is a VERY expensive kid. It has become rather the norm for us to find little surprises in our mailbox telling us that we owe ANOTHER $1,200 or (ah!) SEVEN THOUSAND dollars in medical fees. It seems as though Reed and I made a major technical error in paying each bill as it came in since Parker was a newborn. Because now, when the savings are dry, the fundraising coffers are bare, and our chec

Fear Stops You From Starting A Home Business

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The Car of the Future Will Know You Can't Drive

Someday soon your car may be able tell you about an oncoming vehicle in your lane on a blind curve or even calm you down on a harried commute. But it may also tell your insurance company how often you drive over the speed limit or alert Starbucks when you drive by so that you can be offered a discount on a latte. Stanford professor Clifford Nass and his colleagues at the university's CarLab are figuring how to make vehicles collect information on where you drive, how fast you go, your pref

Coberly replies:

absolutely right. no one ought to try to live on SS who isn't already pretty good at living on nothing. but that's pretty much the point: SS is insurance... you set aside the least amount of money you can in order to guarantee at least the lowest possible standard of living you can stand "if all else fails." and it turns out that for a lot of people who never thought it would happen to them, all else does fail. as for the greater returns from equities etc. yep. that's the risk premium. i

Mea Culpa (ETN Version)

One of the dangers of being a generalist is that you get spread too thin.  Another is that you overplay your abilities.  I probably did a little of both in my recent post on ETNs (and blogging while tired).  The fine folks at Index Universe took umbrage at my post, and for good reason.  I wrote a sloppy post without enough research. Here’s what I intended, even though it came out wrong.  I liked the post that came from Index Universe, because it highlighted an issue with ETNs that I had been t

Guest post: What’s the deal with business liability insurance?

Lauren and Emira, authors of The Boss of You (which is getting rave reviews, by the way), are back with another guest post. A couple weeks ago, I was struggling with the question of business liability insurance â€" what I needed for myself as a company of one, and what to say about it in my new book. I asked them for their thoughts on the matter, and the result is this post. If you have any questions about small business liability insurance, feel free to post ‘em in the comments. I’m sure Lauren

Life Insurance Toronto | It Is Always A Good Time To Buy One Life Insurance For You

Life Insurance Toronto | It Is Always A Good Time To Buy One Life Insurance For You Roberta Martin Many people just wonder what the good time for them to go for a life insurance is. Well the answer is simple, it is never late to buy any kind of insurance the reason is that insurance is an instrument by which you simply secure your self from any risk that can happen in life. Alternatively if you are highly indebted then the best thing to do is to take a whole life insurance. That’s because you

Psycho-Therapist Donna Burstyn - An Interview

Psycho-Therapist Donna Burstyn - An Interview Video: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Her practice is in Beverly Hills. 310-859-9007, dbsmommy@aol.com. Luke: "Donna, why did you become a therapist?" Donna: "I was born to be a therapist. I was always a therapist. Even as a child, I was the one in the house who made peace. In school, I was the one kids went to to talk about their feelings. In high school, I was the one people went to if they thought they w

Longshore workers say "Thanks for the support"

By Jeff Smith of Portland, Oregon. Jeff is a longshore worker and the president of the International Longshore Workers Union Local 8. As a longshore worker, I have been loading and unloading cars, steel, lumber, containers and “you name it” at the Port of Portland since 1980. I am proud to be a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and to serve as the president of ILWU Local 8 here in Portland. And I have to say that today is a great day to be a Longshore worker in this co

Mark M. Benson’s assets frozen in Waukesha County courtroom

Good. It’s nice to know that Mark M. Benson won’t be able to “sign the house over” and “sell his guns” for a little while at least. You’ll recall that those were the thoughts foremost in his mind as he spoke to his wife on the telephone from the Waukesha County criminal justice building, after taking three lives, two weeks ago today. In a suit against Benson filed two days ago in a Waukesha County court, attorneys asked for the court order freezing Benson’s assets, out of fear that he would at

Safest spot for baby’s car set

In the middle of the back seat: The safest spot for a baby’s car seat is in the center of the back seat rather than on the sides, according to a new study. Although older passengers using seat belts can decide where they sit in a car, researchers point out that a child’s seat is determined by where the child-restraint system is installed. For ease of access and keeping an eye on a baby, the most common spot for a baby’s car seat is the rear passenger side. But the study showed that children

PDB's Friday News Report

How You Can Help the People of Burma (Myanmar) Perhaps, more than most we Americans can understand the pain of the Burmese people. After all, we know what it is like to have tens of thousands of our fellow citizens crammed into stadiums, forced into conference halls to live in their waste, and more than a thousand die all the while our leaders strum guitars in San Diego, worry about what they'll wear out to dinner, and busy themselves buying new shoes. It is almost hard to imagine a disaster a

Free Finance Magazines

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary I have been a reader of Financial Planning magazine for nearly two years and find it’s a pretty good source for financial information. Actually, it’s one of two magazines that I currently subscribe to (the other one is Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, but I won’t renew it when the subscription expires in a couple of months). I subscribed to the free magazine from TradePub in the summer of 2006 and received the periodic a few months later. Because the in

Roy Shelburne, DDS Endures A Medicaid Nightmare

I read the following story on Dentaltown. It was written by Dr. Roy Shelburne of VA. about a living nightmare he and his family are experiencing. It's long, but I hope you'll read his letter and the speech his son gave to his dental school class at VCU. If you feel what is happening to Dr. Shelburne is a travesty, please write to the judge in his case before June 1. Contact information is provided. You can find more ways to help here. You can email the governor of Virginia here. F

US Health Policy and Health Economics, a big Topic for Realtors!

I immigrated to the United States in 1989 from Germany, and even then it was unheard of to me that there were people here without health insurance or care. A short time after living here, my then husband’s uncle got a divorce from his dying wife at the hospital bed, so he would not get stuck with the medical bills. I was shocked! I am self-employed and my health insurance is going up the roof. I am paying now $300 a month with a $5000 deductible. And that does not cover dental or vision! I fe

BUILDER GUARANTEES BUYERS’ HOME VALUE

With home prices dropping all over the Bay Area, how do you get gun-shy potential buyers back into the housing market? One homebuilder’s idea is to guarantee that you won’t lose any money if your home’s value drops after the purchase. This protects you from your developer. Homebuilders say a lot of potential buyers walk into a new development and are nervous the developer will lower prices after they buy. There’s a new offer out there that will safeguard against this for the next couple of ye

Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage

About a month ago I got a call from a reporter for the Arkansas Times inquiring about my research into paramilitary drug raids. He’d been reporting on a raid in North Little Rock involving a 40-year-old man named Tracy Ingle. When he told me the story over the phone, I was floored, even given all the abuses and mistakes I’ve reported and read about over the last few years. What makes the case especially egregious is not that the police may have gotten the wrong home, that they shot a man, or th

I feel like a phish

In the mail today was a letter from my insurance agent. He wants my social security number and date of birth so he can obtain my credit score. If it’s high enough I will receive a discount on our homeowner insurance. It smells phishy. Since I don’t use credit to pay the insurance premium, I’m trying to understand why a person with a higher credit score would be a better insurance risk than someone with a lower score. All I can come up with is that the insurance company wants to market my name

Preparing For Long Term Care - Long Term Care Insurance Arizona, Alaska Long Term Care Insurance

Nobody likes the idea of depending of someone else to function daily, but the truth of the matter is that no matter how strong and healthy you are, age has a way of weakening and slowing you down. If you do not have money to pay for long term care services, it is wise for you to invest in long term care insurance. Health insurance does not cover long term care. Statistics have shown that over five million people between the ages of 14 and 65 require some kind of long term care. It is therefore expedient that you consider buying long term care insurance

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While reading this week's Grand Rounds hosted this week at Suture for a Living, I was lead to an interesting post by Dr. Val on an effort by her and Revolution Health to team up with medical experts and mommy bloggers to create a new health index for Mother's Day. West Virginia ranks 38 out of 51 states on the momScore. As we head into this weekend's Mother's Day, Anna Marie Jarvis would want us to try to raise our ranking. West Virginia received a a score of 69 out of a possible 100. The are

What maybe the $500 billion COULD have been spent on?

It is well known that the U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars fighting its little war in Iraq (well, little for the U.S. - not for the millions of Iraqis having their lives destroyed courtesy the U.S. taxpayer and military). A famous economist has even asserted that the war will ultimately cost the United States several trillion dollars. Some observers might think the U.S. is rich and can easily afford it. And if they were thinking of the United States government they might be right.

Magic beans

If there’s one vegetable plant I can grow it’s climbing french beans. They were the first thing I grew in this garden, in a pot on the patio. When we were struggling with the allotment and overgrown with bindweed we still managed to harvest enormous quantities of french beans. It’s only natural, then, that the potager’s inaugural year should include these staples. If only so that I can have a fighting chance of some kind of success. Having built our sturdy bean frame earlier this weekend, and

198 Sundays: Strike While The Iron's Hot

E forwarded me this link: In case you missed it, my 850 Portland-area union brothers and sisters in the ILWU honored our troops by refusing to work for 8 hours on May 1 and instead called for an end to the war in Iraq. We were among the 25,000 longshore workers in 29 ports from Washington to California who stood together to call an end to the war and demand that the troops be able to come home to their families. We keep getting phone calls from people who are thanking us for taking this stand.

It's not just offshoring your father's oldsmobile worker any more

A new study by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and CareerBuilder.com provides new data on motives for sending US jobs abroad (and abroad can mean Canada) as well as which jobs are a likely target. Here are what I found to be the more striking findings of the report. The jobs that are most at risk are not industrial jobs. This may be because so few still exist in the US. Job done on sending them abroad. Rather the jobs most at risk are those involving computers. “The s

Dares, Polls, And India

Dares I know it has been awhile since I completed a dare, however they are always in the back of my mind. To recap what is outstanding: For $100, my friend Bob wants me to get a photo with a topless girl. For $50, get my photo taken with a ladyboy in Thailand. For $30, Tim wants me to eat a scorpion. For $25, Dan wants me to ride a motorcycle in an obscene amount of traffic. For $200, my brother Jon wants me to get a tattoo. It’s quite possible that I can make a run at all of these once I a

It's A Nation At Risk...

In honor of the 25th anniversary of A Nation At Risk, Columbus Education Association’s CEA blog asked a number of people to post their thoughts on what a world without ANAR would be like. I’m not sure I was able to totally get myself into the stylistic spirit of it, but my contribution is here. I was going to leave it at that, but then I saw Chester Finn’s swipe at Richard Rothstein and Larry Mishel. Lame, as Leo Casey noted. (I missed the Jerry Bracey piece Leo refers to. I often take up J

Do you really want to work in Venture Capital?

I have heard this from many people I have met “I really want to be a VC”. First, why are you asking me when I am not one and don’t have a desire to be one? Let me direct you to some people in the industry and a few who left it to get a good perspective on the business. So I went ahead and asked the question “do you think people should really become VC’s”. Surprisingly, many said no. Why? I will tell you. The origins of this post were motivated by Seth Levine’s post today How to get a job in Ve

That Crazy 50 year old

That Crazy 50 year old My age has never been a source of discomfort to me; so it amuses me when people hurry to assure me that fifty is the new forty whenever my next birthday comes up in the conversation. I want to say, “Easy folks, it isn’t as though I was shortchanged and cheated of a few years that I arrived at 50 a lot sooner than I ought to. I had my full quota in seconds, minutes and hours and I have no problem being 50.” I guess they mean to be supportive assuring me that I shouldn

Ideas For Financing A New Business

Ideas For Financing A New Business May 5th, 2008 The State: Money held in a bank account, money-market fund or brokerage account is readily accessible and you won’t have to pay any interest or fees to get it. But it’s not perfect. You might put other goals at risk. Set a limit on how much of your assets you’re willing to risk. Home equity Arranging a home-equity loan or line of credit is usually quick and inexpensive for qualified borrowers. You take the cash only when you need it. A hom

Lots of Links in Recent Niners News

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Life Insurance Toronto | Medical Insurance In The World Full Of Uncertainties

Life Insurance Toronto | Medical Insurance In The World Full Of Uncertainties Fred Romano We all live in the world that is full of uncertainty and with risks. All of us like to live as long as we can but no one can fight with the fate. All of us have one desire that what ever time we live in this wonderful world, we live with the best of health, without any health related problems or any handicaps. But we have to take necessary precautions when it comes to health and finances so that you are

SEVEN Cavities???!!!!

I’ve been guzzling Pepsi since I moved to California in 1987. It got steadily worse until, at the peak in 1992-96, I was drinking two or three two-liter jugs per day. This was not good for my teeth. Along about 2004, I got on my wife’s really excellent dental insurance plan (thank you, California Teachers’ Association) and went to my boss’s dentist â€" a nice fellow with a nice office and an adjunct professorship at a nearby university. He fixed me up, repairing the large number of cavities I’d

Work Woes I

I love my job. I love my coworkers. I absolutely adore my clients. Since I began my career, I have worked in different settings, each time being an independent contractor with whichever office I was at. So, although I was in an office that someone else owned, my business was separate, but included of where I was located. And I have lived a dream partnership for about 8 years. But, I may be having intuition that we might be having different visions of our futures. When I got into massage thera

Wall Street Safe–Life can go on…..

Buffett says life is back to stable, the financial crisis is essentially over.  Wall Street will not collapse. Yes, and why would that be the measure?  He does mention that individuals will now have to pay a price but so long as Wall Street is safe and Bear Stearns did not collapse and cause a chain reaction, all is well. “As I understand it, Bear Stearns had $65 billion due on Monday and I didn’t have $65 billion,” Buffett said. “I couldn’t get my mind around that situation in the required

Slipping

Fill your pockets full of sympathy... Get your cheese ready to offer... Bring the tissues... Pull up a chair... Pull out your world's smallest violin... Get your shoulder ready and take a deep breath. Or... Skip this post entirely. Following is my pity party. You can join me or you can leave. I won't be offended nor take it personally if you do. We all have our own issues and although some are far worse than mine, mine are my own degree of bad. You've been warned. This week started out

technical woes

Hi guys, Ema, everyone. Sorry for the long silence but the home ‘net connection is again on the fritz. It started last week during Pesach holidays getting slower and slower and then really slooooowwwwww. We’re talking taking 15-20 minutes to load a page if it would load one at all. I’ve got a technician coming out on Monday to hopefully fix it. It is undoubtedly another case of “dead modem syndrome” caused by the faulty wiring in the apartment. I’ve also managed to break my washing machine â€"al

Yes, we can … no matter what

I grew up in a multi-generational household; I’ve lived in one, off and on, most of my life. My folks were Depression babies, teens of the 40’s, young adults of the 50’s â€" the stories and influence of the lean years came to me not from my upwardly-mobile parents, but the Grands and Great-Grands. In that potent brew of attitudes and age ranges, I learned not only that the world was my oyster, but a number of skills that have served me well all my life; I can make something tasty out of nothing m

My entry to Oprah

I have had Type 1 diabetes since October 2000. I was 16 years old when I was diagnosed. Throughout my time with diabetes I have went into a complication called diabetic ketoacidosis which is when the sugar in your blood stream turns into acid. Each time I have spent at least 12 hours in ICU. The last two times that I have had this happen (April 2007 and July 2007) I did not have insurance and am stilling paying for them. I have assistance for my insulins but they do not have assistance for suppl

Disassembly lines, social networks and software

Whenever I travel I tend to go through a goodly supply of books, papers and magazines. Yesterday was no different. And quite often, while I’m doing this, I tend to collect scraps of paper, articles that I’ve torn out of the newspapers and magazines in order to carry less. Later, when I’m awake doing that early morning jet lag thing, I tend to read the ripped-out articles a second time and then dispose of them in the hotel room. That’s what I’m doing right now. One such article was entitled Ho

Actions, Reactions, Over-reactions

Via Walter Olson at Overlawyered, this story from the London Independent, a story that brings pain to my already at-risk chest. Trees, nearly 40,000 of them, some 100 years old, felled in London because of . . . (gasp) lawyers. Well, there had to be a reason that Walter took note of the story. I love trees. Ask Bennett and he'll tell you. I've got about 5 acres of woods on my property. Lots and lots of trees. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am a tree-hugger, and proud of it.

The Independent Midwives of Kent

Campaign to save the Independent Midwives One of the many commentators under Madwife goes for a swim says the following: The problem now is that no insurance company offers insurance for independent midwives in the UK. Dr C seems to believe that this is because they are a much greater risk than NHS midwives.That is correct. Let me explain why. To do so, I am going to take you through a birth supervised by the Kent Midwifery Practice, which is run by aquanaut Virginia Howes. I would not normally

RE: Why I write (or "blog" if you will)

After watching the infamous Buzz Bissinger clips where he classifies every person with a blog as someone who is filled with malice and hatred, I just had to go on record with something. I know he’ll never read it and honestly, I don’t want him to -- he showed entirely too much arrogance to even warrant me wanting to ever have deal with him in any facet of life. Never mind the fact that he can’t sit straight up in a chair… does he have a back problem or something? Here’s a quick tip Buzz: If you

Side Effecting Functions are Code Smells

I know the title might catch a few people off guard, but let me explain. Side effecting functions, for the most part, are code smells. This is a very important concept in Domain Driven Design (DDD) that's often overlooked. For those who are deep in DDD, this should sound rather familiar. And in the end, I think Spec# and some Design by Contract (DbC) constructs can mitigate this, or you can go the functional route as well. What Is A Side Effect? When you think of the word side effect i

remember to shop around for life insurance

Did you know that if you’re a single man (as in unmarried / not in a civil partnership) you will typically be asked to take an HIV test if you wish to insure your own life for more than £300k? For all women and married men, the relevant figure rises to £1m. As no data currently exists for men in civil partnerships (they haven’t been around long enough), some insurers will treat them as single men, and others as married - I’m not sure whether this does, or should contravene the anti-discriminat

The RESP Strategy

ABC Stocks asked me to post about my RESP strategy. As mentioned in my post on "Having a Newborn - Getting down to business", I plan on opening a TD e-funds account (non aff) and buying cheap index based mutual funds. Why TD e-funds? What I really like about the TD e-funds setup is that they only offer low management expense ratio (MER) index funds. This is great for the investor who likes to "do it yourself". Why not buy ETF's instead? As I plan on putting small amounts at time, index mut

Insurance coupled with a bit of assurance

Many of us worry about the insurance we have, asking things like, "do we have enough coverage ?" "Does it cover this or that ?" "Should we buy more coverage ?" It's all a bit of a gamble to put money out each month for something that MIGHT happen, but many of us do it anyway, feeling it worth the cost. There are required insurances like car insurance, home owners insurance if you have a mortgage on your home etc, then there are the elective insurances like life insurance and health insurance. S

The Wright Time!

There’s this concept called turning lemons into lemonade and now is the RIGHT time for Barack Obama to take advantage of the WRIGHT time and make hay while the proverbial sun shines. That which our enmies propose for our demise we can turn into a victory m,ore often than not if we have the right (wright) perspective. I’m talking Jeremiah Wright here of course! Why WRIGHT decided to wait a month before continuing to be WRONG, I don’t know. There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there

You Can’t MAKE Me!

Yep. you’ll get no argument from me on this one. The healthcare system in America has some real problems. What those problems might or might not be are not the subject of this post. The biggest problem you’ll be HEARING about constantly in this current election year is that people lack access to healthcare and so we need to change to a single payer system so that all will have healthcare coverage and all can live happily ever after. In any of my dreams or potential realities does a single pa

Are main tanks a mistake?

Does your guild have a main rogue or a main hunter? Silly question, of course not. You might have a class leader for every class, but something like a main rogue simply doesn't exist. But then most guilds have a main tank. Which leads to the question of why you would have a main of one class, but not of all the others. Having a main tank who gets priority over other players in tanking loot distribution is common, but it doesn't always work out that good. Or to quote a comment from Yunkndatwunk f

Sternly Bashing the Bear Stearns Bailout

I find it interesting that some former senior people at the Fed are breaking the “code of silence.”  I don’t mean that those that leave the Fed go totally silent, but they are usually supportive of the current Fed if they speak.  Even Greenspan, who pushes his own legacy, is largely supportive of Bernanke.  But with Volcker speaking out, others are emboldened, like Vincent Reinhart.  I don’t know exactly what Reinhart said in his speech yesterday, but I would bet that it is similar to what he w

Cost and Value

Warren Buffett likes to say "price is what you pay, value is what you get." Like so many of his sayings, it seems simple, but then you look around and you see that common sense is often not commonly understood. This post(hattip mcd) shows how this plays out in my swamp which is consulting Pricing Strategies: “We do not compete on price. Ever. If we can't compete on value, ability, talent, and, frankly, if we can't create a better value proposition for the client, we don't want their business a

Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

Echo Chamber We always knew, and a Pew report confirms it - between 1998 and 2006, conservatives migrated to Fox News and never looked up. As a result, unspinnable reality has set upon us all like a plague of boils. I know where a whole lot of people's "stimulus checks" are going! Right into the old gas tank. Gas has hit $3.60 a gallon, and crude oil futures are closing in on $120 per barrel. Can we get serious about public transit in areas that don't have it, please? It isn't just for poor pe

The Nightowl Newswrap

Echo Chamber We always knew, and a Pew report confirms it - between 1998 and 2006, conservatives migrated to Fox News and never looked up. As a result, unspinnable reality has set upon us all like a plague of boils. I know where a whole lot of people's "stimulus checks" are going! Right into the old gas tank. Gas has hit $3.60 a gallon, and crude oil futures are closing in on $120 per barrel. Can we get serious about public transit in areas that don't have it, please? It isn't just for poor pe

Disaster Preparedness a Necessity

Normally when I receive PR information, I save it, potentially, for Butterviews. This is different. This is important information that I need, and that is needed by the larger audience of this blog. I live in earthquake country. It could happen at any time, any day. There isn’t any warning. The closest they’ve gotten is “the ‘big one’ will be in the next 30 years.” They’ve said that since I was a kid, and it’s always the same timeframe. In other words, no one really knows. So I want to challe

In Which We Face Up To The Tragic Sense of Life

We last allowed you to appreciate the man, the myth, the legend Whittaker Chambers when he took apart Ayn Rand. I don’t really agree with much of what he writes in that review; it strikes me that convicting Rand of lacking nuance isn’t a solid point. But since it does not pay to take Rand literally, I suppose “Big Sister Is Watching You” was necessary. Chambers knew everything, and this essay he may have worked on with James Agee about Franz Kafka is proof. Sure, Kafka was a popular guy by

Diabetes in the News

Diabetes in the News. I don’t mind so much people linking to any post I have on this site - BUT only if they give proper due to me, the author (or Tre when she posts).  Recently I have been dealing with folks stealing the Diabetes in the News posts via RSS and attributing them to someone else, even if they do link here in the end, they are basically stealing my work.   So if you are reading this outside of an RSS reader, American Conservative Daily or RightyBlogs.com - Alabama, then someone

Those evil trees

UK tree during holiday by Marjon Trees are hazardous. They drop limbs and fruit on people's heads and cars. They harbor dangerous, and possibly rabid, animals like squirrels and monkeys. They are full of birds that leave corrosive droppings on vehicles underneath. They perilously block your vision of the road and make driving dangerous. There are rumors that they can even jump out in front of your car just as you careen off the road. If the above sounds as ridiculous to you as it does to me, ke

What Diet Pills Really Work for Weight Loss?

What Diet Pills Really Work for Weight Loss? April 27th, 2008 by Reagyn Miers With so many diet pills available you may wonder, what diet pills actually work for weight loss? The answer is there are a few diet pills that actually work, but there are no magic pills. You can’t take any kind of diet pill, continue to eat everything in site, lead a sedentary life and expect to lose weight. Shrinking your waist requires a change in lifestyle. This means making healthy changes in your diet and gett

Bad Air in Albany?

Bad Air in Albany? The report of bad air in Albany hardly surprises me. I live in an industrial district. The air sometimes stinks. But what stinks worse is the constant smoke from a neighbors wood burning. When he burns it, the smoke gets inside this house and sometimes the smell is so strong, I wake up thinking the house is on fire. My eyes burn. My throat burns and yuk! It's miserable. Click post title to see TRI report on Linn County emissions. The two worst polluting offenders in L

Senate Says No to Genetic Underwriting

Seen in the Wall Street Journal (subscriber link): After more than a decade of deliberation, the Senate cleared the bill 95-0 Thursday. The same bill is expected to sail through the House early next week â€" just as a similar measure did a year ago â€" and on to President Bush, who is expected to sign it. The legislation would bar insurance companies from denying health coverage or charging higher premiums based on a person’s genetic information. It would also bar employers from using genetic in

Noise

By Bob Wood, MMNS As I write this column, the stock market is enjoying a wonderful rally with the Dow up almost 300 points for the day. This market advance is in response to positive earnings announcements from several large companies whose shares trade in large volume each trading day. Last week, the market ended on a sour note with a big one-day drop, due, in large part, to disappointing earnings from General Electric. Is this the environment envisioned by long term investors? Can news from

Clue: Web 2.0, With Twitter, in the Library

The first real job I got, other than babysitting, house-cleaning, or picking blackberries, at the age of 15 was at the village public library. Appropriately, my job title was "page". My duties including checking out books with a big rubber date-stamper, collecting overdue fines, and as we called it at another job I had at the 7/11 later, "fronting the merchandise". In the three years I worked, we graduated to a new form of technology -- a microfiche scanner that took a picture of the book and t

Shea commented on "State of the nation"

Shea said: Sorry but I think your misinformed about the vaccine. Gardasilwas never said to prevent against all strains of the HPV virus so it was always necessary to have follow up pap smears. ( a virus by its nature mutates to form different strains, this is partly why it is so difficult to find a comprehensive vaccine.) The vaccine has been extensively clinically trialled and has FDA and NICE approval. But as with all vaccines there is a risk it will damage some individuals, that is why we hav

2008 NFL Draft: Live Blog

Change of plans. I’ll be running the live blog here on the NFL Source. On the draft site, you can also see the picks and analysis. Right now, the Pats are up at number seven. Sorry I haven’t been able to do the first six picks. The only surprise for me was Glenn Dorsey going to the Chiefs, as I actually thought he’d slip by. Oh, we have a trade. The Saints are now on the clock, and they’ll likely pick Sedrick Ellis. I guess New England didn’t have a stand-out player. 7th Pick: Saints selec

Social Media in the Insurance Industry

Jeremiah Owyang has a post up today about his search for social media programs in the insurance industry. In short, he didn't find many. It's an industry that's well behind the curve of adoption--which isn't all that surprising for a profession based on risk aversion. A few months ago, I had a long conversation with the VP of Worldwide Web Marketing for one of the largest insurance/financial businesses in the world. It was enlightening. This gentleman was quite web savvy and very much a propo

Google Alerts - What's in the News?

If you don't have Google Alerts, why not? I love the alerts. I get a smattering of obstetric news this way. It's one of the coolest functions of the Net; consider trying it! I have alerts on these words: - "Navelgazing Midwife" (and I love seeing who's yacking about me in their blogs or articles!) - homebirth - "home birth" (you need to put the quotes around phrases or else you get a million irrelevant notices) - waterbirth - "water birth" - "natural birth" - midwifery - midwife - "San Diego

No Lynx, No Saffron - just Yellow for the US

Actually, it’s called Lynx Yellow further down but the headline is more mellow - It’s the Saab Convertible Yellow Edition - coming soon to a US Saab dealer near you! No big pic available as I write this, but I’m loving those wheels…. â€"â€" 2008 Saab 9-3 Convertible Yellow Edition: Return of a Classic DETROIT â€" While all Saab Convertibles are popular among car aficionados, owning one in yellow is an extra sunny experience. The first-ever yellow version of the Saab Convertible, issued in 1991, n

Nostrum Remedium

“Are you overweight or lack energy to get through the day and don't know why? Thousands of American families have relied on the medical wonder known as...” Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer, M.D., had been heralded as a leading physician of our country, and devoted his 60-year practice to the study of diseases and their treatments. His impressive medical training was at some of the most respected medical schools, and he also studied under a pioneer of homeopathy, making him one of the earliest pr

More on the Actual Gastric Bypass Death Rate

A helpful blog reader send me the full PDF version of the study of the long term outcome of weight loss surgery in Pennsylvania which was cited in the previous blog post. Death Rates and Causes of Death after Bariatric Surgery for Pennsylvania Residents 1994-2004. Bennet I. Omalu et. al. Arch Surg. 2007;142(10):923-928. Typically when a surgeon tells you the mortality rate for a surgery, he tells you only the percentage of those who died within 30 days of the surgery. This study looked both a

Medco Keeps UnitedHealth as Drug-Benefits Customer

Medco is hanging on to its biggest fish. The pharmacy benefits manager said this morning that insurance giant UnitedHealth Group will stick with Medco in a contract that lasts through the end of 2012. The previous pact was set to expire at the end of 2009, the companies say. The news sent Medco’s shares up 7% in morning trading, after there had been fear on Wall Street that United might take the drug-benefit job in-house. Cowen & Co. said in a report to investors that United represents 22% of

Most People Still Think - “You Can’t Go Wrong in Property”

Friday brought news that the Royal Bank of Scotland was looking to raise another $10 billion. This came amid news that the City (London's Wall Street district) faced its "blackest day in almost 20 years," according to the Daily Telegraph, and would lose 3,500 jobs. Which just goes to show how sunny the financial business has been for the last two decades. A little rain would do it good, in our opinion. Meanwhile, over on the other bank of the Atlantic, Citigroup has issued storm warnings and M

3 Ways to Make Extra Money in a Recession

Cash shortages are common during a recession. What similarities do you notice in the cycle below: Consumers Spend Less Money Businesses Earn Less Money Businesses Stop Hiring/Start Firing Laid off Consumers Spend Less Money …. When the economy stops expanding there is less money to go around. Everyone tries to get more out of less. We pay less for products and services and then try to extend their useful life. So how can you tap into this trend to make extra money during a recession? Hel

PZ PredictZ

PZ PredictZ Following this post on the discrediting of astrology, PZ Myers has started a sideline in fabricated horoscopes. Some of these are priceless, so I've collected them here for those of you who don't read Pharyngula. (But wait! Doesn't everyone read Pharyngula? Well, I think there may be one or two that don't). Aries: Look. The reason for your headaches is all the head-butting you do. Switch it up a little, and next time life throws one of those little annoyances your way, trying bi

It's the oogly boogly!

Hey Shell, guess what we're watching? That's right, we're watching the oogly boogly! Cloverfield is a wicked fun movie, I know other people got sick watching it because of the camera movement, but it made it feel real to me. The movie is about the monster, but it's also a love story. Rob loves Beth so much, he's willing to and does, risk his life to be with the woman he loves. Here's our man Rob, new job in Japan, probably hooked himself up with and got some decent life insurance quotes,

Midwifery Care Is Good For Health Insurance Carriers

Jay and I are eagerly awaiting the birth of our first child, due in less than three weeks now. We have two registered midwives who have taken great care of us throughout the pregnancy, and will be at our house for the birth next month. They have provided wonderful prenatal care and advice without excessive intervention, which was exactly what we wanted. Jay and I are not at all opposed to traditional medical care if we are sick or injured. When Jay hurt his knee, we went to the best knee surgeo

As Promised: Too Hot for TWoP

The computer is working pretty well again, although I have no idea why. I turned it off for a few days to give it time to think about what it had done and then when I turned it on, the battery charged easily and it stopped randomly shutting down. Hooray! Share in my happiness by watching the video that TWoP said "wasn't what we were looking for" in a "man on the street" piece and was also "an insurance risk." Since they won't put it up on their site, I'll put it up on mine -- with all reference

5 Benefits of Using Credit Cards

5 Benefits of Using Credit Cards April 25th, 2008 Debbie Dragon is a writer for Creditorweb.com, where she writes about credit card offers, responsible credit card use, and rewards programs. With all the focus on getting out of debt and paying off high interest credit cards, you might be wondering why I would suggest using credit cards to improve your financial situation. The truth is, there are a number of reasons why credit cards can be beneficial to your finances â€" it’s really all how and w

Got Nukes?

How out of touch with its roots has the Green movement grown? Even one of its founding fathers is talking heresy. Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, but it is likely enough that the world should turn to nuclear power - a concept tied closely to the underground nuclear testing his former environmental group formed to oppose. The chemistry of the atmosphere is changing, and there is a high-enough risk that “true believers” like Al Gore a

Chatter heading into the Fed meeting

There's a lot of interesting chatter about what the Fed might do next week. Most of it seems to center on whether the Fed will finally stop cutting rates, or just cut rates one last time by 25 basis points and then signal a pause. Here's an excerpt from a WSJ story on the topic yesterday: "The Federal Reserve is likely to cut its short-term interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point next week -- but then may be ready for a breather. "The Fed, meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, is likely to

Final 2008 Mock Draft: 7 Rounds with Analysis!

Dave Ryan took every pick for this year’s draft and broke it down.  Check out analysis you’ll only find at New Era Scouting! By Dave Ryan Round One 1. Miami Dolphins-Jake Long-OT-Michigan This pick was easy enough to predict this year. Jake Long should develop into a Pro Bowler in two to three years as a Dolphin, and gives Bill Parcells a rock on his line that he can rely on. 2. St. Louis Rams-Chris Long-DE-Virginia The Rams hold the key to the draft now that Miami is already locked in

NOLA, McCain, The Curse of John Hagee, and other matters

Writing on the City of New Orleans: Any resident of the Nevada outback has to be pleased that the Internet(s)’s Tubes reach into the sagebrush zone so that we can discover that presumptive Republican presidential candidate John Sidney McCain III (R-AZ) has declared in regard to the drowning of New Orleans that, “…never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled.” Or, “There was (sic) unqualified people in charge, there was a total mis

World Vision Report - Show 224

World Vision Report - Show 224 World Vision Report, 28:00 When your child is sick, you don't care what the risks are -- you get them some help. That's the case for a number of Iraqi parents whose children suffer from severe heart problems. The parents risk retaliation from militants for seeking care for their children from a group of Israeli doctors. It seems political and religious differences really don't matter when a child's life is at stake. That story and more -- this week on the World Vi

Outrageous Health Care Costs

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill health. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), playwright Below is the letter that I opted not to send because even the insurance only pays a percentage of the total bill. I am not sure what I will be stuck paying, but either way it's sickening. Our health care system is a convoluted mess, so it’s not even worth the stamp. Enjoy and I hope you can’t relate. April 24, 2008 President & CEO Chairman of the Board Rose

Petrol price insurance

So in attempting to take some time off after the 2020 Summit, I forgot to write about my one big idea that came to me during the Summit but, of course, was never aired as I was in the wrong group for it. It was this: the way to sell the public on high petrol prices as a way of reducing emissions would not be to impose a tax on it but to fix the price of petrol at, say, $2.50 per litre, for the next 3 years and raise it by some fixed amount thereafter. What is the rationale? Well, we know that

Sigh

My family had a similar problem when my daughter was born with all kinds of complications for me and for her. She was three years old before we stopped receiving collection notices for bills our insurance carrier was supposed to pay. It was much longer than that before our credit rating was restored. Sigh. I was unable to "fix" that despite the fact that I had worked in the insurance industry for many years. (I still do.) Despite my knowledge of the industry I was unable to fix our situation (

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is, even with medical care

As reported by CNN News, a recent study by the University of Chicago found that people receiving free sample medications end up spending more money on drugs in the long run, about 19% more. This is not a surprising finding. Drug sample are an advertising ploy by pharmaceutical companies. They give the drugs to doctors so that they will give them to their patients to try and then switch to a prescription after the patient finds that the drug works for them. The drugs for which free sample are ava

Bill Prohibiting Genetic Discrimination Moves Forward

Sharing risk is supposed to be the goal of insurance, going back to when it was a group of shipowners getting together in Lloyd’s Coffeehouse to agree to cover each other if any of their ships sank (they all made a little less profit, but none had to worry about being utterly ruined by a single event. If insurers begin to stratify the clients on the basis of genetic testing, a market will arise to insure the never-tested against bad test results (pay us $xxx up front, and we cover your increased

Health Insurance - Understanding Medicare

Retirement is a wonderful time in one's life. But it can also be a time of great pain if not properly prepared for. you need to understand all there is to long term care and what options are open to you. Medicare is a federal program that provides health insurance to senior citizens irrespective of their medical condition. You can only qualify for Medicare if you are 65 years and above. Medicare would automatically register people who were receiving social security benefits once they reach the age of 65.

2008 Saab 9-3 Convertible Yellow Edition: Saab Builds Another Wasp-Looking Drop-Top [2008 Saab 9-3 Convertible Yellow Edition]

Apparently the angry brand born from jets has a little bit of a secret â€" when it comes to pretty, happy and sunny colors, Saabophiles everywhere see the color yellow as some kind of a "code word." No, it's not like a foot-tapping-in-a-stall kind of thing â€" and we're pretty sure it's not a "P***y Magnet" kind of thing. No, apparently they just think "extra sunny" when they see it. That's what we're told anyway in the new release from the General's little Swedish meatball of a brand. While we're

War Funding, Impeachment, and Health Care

By David Swanson Remarks delivered in San Luis Obispo, California, on April 23, 2008 When I started giving speeches about Iraq and impeachment three years ago, I liked to list the major impeachable offenses for Bush and for Cheney, but as the list grew it became rather cumbersome. It got to the point where adding another crime to the list would bring to mind four others I needed to add, and then someone would discover a whole new field of criminality and report it in the news while I was on t

Wall Street gets a butt whippin'

Friend and colleague Bob Laszewski has shined a very bright light on Wall Street's ignorance about the health insurance business. Bob notes: "We are way past the time the really smart people on Wall Street (that would be all of you) needed to start asking just what the future of this business is. If the answer you get is that the future of managed care is just to ride an unsustainable health care cost trend rate many more years into the future[bold is mine] you might just want to dig a little

Long Term Care - Understanding Long Term Care Services

What is long term care? how does it affect me and my loved ones. Ignorance about an issue does not help one make wise decisions. it is very important to understand what long term is all about. who needs it? would i need it? Long term care is the total care given to a person who is suffering from a disease that keeps a person from active life. Though a lot of people assume that long term care is for old folks only, but it is also for sick folk who can't take care of themselves. The various services aim at helping people with terminal situations deal with limitations that is caused by their inability to lead a normal life.

The European Draft Common Frame of Reference (CFR)

Panloss went to a very interesting lecture yesterday by Hugh Beale of Warwick and formerly the English Law Commission on the publication of the first part of the European CFR project - namely the Draft CFR on Contract (CFRC). What is the CRC and why should you care? This is a grand plan, which has in various forms been gathering momentum for many years, to distill principles out of the whole of European private law - as derived from the now 27 members of the EU - and create a kind of codified v

Bright Shiny Objects

As performed by National Lampoon on “National Lampoon Radio Dinner” (1972, Blue Thumb Records), from Deteriorata â€" “Remember my son, a walk through the ocean of most people’s souls would not even wet your ankles.”   If you want to know more about the Deteriorata, see this â€" but maybe detail isn’t necessary. People like to think they are deep and serious, and seem to love what sound like deep thoughts. The words make you stop and think. You feel you’re onto something. It might be profound. 

"Stop Gaps" or "The Real Deal"?

Through FA the team has covered several positions. * At SAF we picked up Manuel and McCree, * at WR we picked up Colbert, Jackson, and Parker, * and at LB we picked up K2 and Boss. Whose a stop gap, and who is a legit long term solution? The answers may surprise you! Read on... Starting at safety, let's take a brief look at our depth chart. Hamza was a 7th round pick for TB who ended up as a pleasant surprise for DEN. He can be a starter and get the job done, and he is improving. He play

Your EZ Insurance Portal

Do I need insurance? You certainly do need insurance because if you go bare (means having no insurance) essentially what happens is you are on your own. If anything happens to your home or your property, or you happen to injure somebody else, your assets are at risk. It's out of your own bank account, out of your own pocket. Remember that people really do need to buy insurance. Insuring your property and yourself is very important. Having homeowner's insurance, auto insurance and health and li

Politics and Policy and Blogs, oh my!

"What's this 'public policy' thing," you may ask, "and what is it doing on a political blog?" Yeah, I know. Guilty as charged. There are definitely sites and writers out there who focus heavily (in some cases, to a fault) on partisan politics with absolutely no regard for the meaning of what those political games lead to: public policy. Legislation. Laws. The things that govern the way members of our society deal with and treat each other. Those writers' (after all in some cases, it's not re

The Cost And Risk Of Jared Allen

Two reasons that some Vikings fans might be uncomfortable with the Allen trade: His off-field issues, and the fact that the Vikings needed to add an additional third-round pick to the deal. The latter is a debate that won’t be decided for several years. The majority of Vikings fans seem to be fine with the high price for Allen, and I’d count myself among that group â€" opportunities to land elite defensive ends are few and far between, so Allen should ultimately prove to be worth the high cost.

Ahhnold the Bold

So it actually happened â€" unexpectedly, an “eligible” dude asked me out. Conveying this information to various friends and associates only led to repetitions of the question, “By eligible you mean he’s Christian and has hair?” which has compelled me to conclude that I really need to get some new conversation topics. I was unsure at first what the purpose of the requested meeting was â€" people sometimes ask to meet me because they want to tap me for legal information which I am generally woeful

Living with Higher Sea Levels

OK, folks, here's the map you all wanted to see: What happens to Virginia's Tidewater under a doomsday global warming scenario, a three-meter rise in sea levels? Answer: About 1/3 of of south Hampton Roads slips under the waves. (Click on map to view a larger, more legible image.) Not shown on the map: When Pat Robertson dies and there's no one left to avert the hurricanes through prayer... Hurricane storm surges swallow up even more. The map is a stark reminder that, after New Orleans, Hampto

"Credit" Biography

In many countries, a record for a person or company and the repayment of loans, including information about the payment default and bankruptcy. The term "reputation" means can be used, is a synonym for in your credit history or credit cards pointing device. When a customer fills in an application for credit with a bank, a magazine or company credit card, which their information is, to a desktop, as well as credit cards constant updates on the status of their accounts, credit cards, the address o

Blogger Interviews: Christmas Ape

We're running a segment here at The Big Picture where we'll interview some of the biggest names in the sports blogosphere. What's the point? Well, these guys spend countless, thankless hours writing, so a little recognition from time to time is well warranted. Think of this as the blogger's version of a reach-around or something. Up today is Michael Tunison, known in the blogging daisy chain as Christmas Ape. Ape is one of the founding fathers of Kissing Suzy Kolber but also shows his face at D

The Economics of the Longoria Deal

The Tampa Bay Rays have just signed top prospect Evan Longoria to a long-term deal only a few games into his first major league season. The deal guarantees Longoria $17.5 million over six seasons, and it includes team options for three more years. This deal is interesting in that it locks in his purely-reserved and arbitration-eligible years for a price that is similar to what Longoria would make if he signed a series of one-year contracts for the next six years. The Rays then have two sets o

Lou Dobbs and CNN need a reality check

Lou Dobbs and CNN need a reality check CNN's Lou Dobbs opined that Pope Benedict XVI mixed religion and politics on his visit to the US, "I don't really appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me and my fellow citizens what to do." Does he hyperventilate only about immigration? Commentary by William Donohue Does the Pope have bad manners? Lou Dobbs of CNN made comments about Pope Benedict, saying it is "bad manners" to appear to criticize the United States. Dobbs should either allow deba

The Industry, Insurance, and Iron Man

Sonny Bunch has a nice item up about Robert Downey Jr.'s chemical and political reformation. But it got me wondering about this: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember some reports about Downey during his nadir that he was becoming unemployable not because he couldn't handle the work, but because the insurance costs of having him as part of a production were too steep. Maybe I'm misremembering this, but I feel like it was some time around his Ally McBeal stint. Even if I'm misremember

Bank Mistake

I have a bank that didn’t get my last change of address notification. When the mail was returned to them, they found my address and sent it to me along with a note telling me to change my address with them. The odd thing was along with my statement were 5 other statements from people I don’t know. I called them and confirmed the address change and mentioned the other statements. They said they would take care of it. The other day I got my next statement--and the statements from 5 different

Don’t Risk Not Getting A Term Life Insurance Quote

There are so many reasons that people should consider taking out a life insurance policy and I would suggest that the most important one is to consider what the quality of life of ones family would be like if the major bread winner was to meet an unfortunate end. Hell, even if the wife was to kick the bucket how would the husband manage to go to work and do all the stuff she used to do without some sort of financial assistance. There is no excuse not to look into it these days especially as t

Get Your Term Life Insurance Quote Online

Get Your Term Life Insurance Quote Online by Sire @ 4:50 pm. Filed under Sponsored Posts A mate and I were watching a Bruce Willis movie the other day when a commercial about life insurance came on and he scoffed at the idea. My mouth just dropped open. I could not believe it. I mean he had a family the same as I did and there is no way in hell I would put them at risk by not having life insurance cover. Especially as these days with the aid of the Internet it is so easy to get a term

catching up

catching up April 22, 2008 â€" 9:49 pm Yesterday was phone call day. I made a bunch of phone calls â€" how many is a bunch? Anyway, I’m signed up for the bariatric surgery seminar. The doc in Springfield does take my insurance. So, I’m officially looking into it with seriousness. We’ll see. Today was shrink and shopping day. Nothing exciting with the shrink. I popped up to Petsmart to buy Stasia some Blue Buffalo. I’m not starting an argument about what food is better - but Blue Buffalo has no cor

The Bull Put Stock Option Spread

Will it go up, sideways or down? This is the question for traders that ranks right up there with is there life after death. You may have the faith but you’re never really sure. And so it goes every trading day. Some days are high probability days and others-many others- are iffy. Wisdom might say to stay out of the markets on anything but high probability days. But high probability days may only happen on relatively few trading days. But there are ways to play the game and limit loses while bei

Deflation In A Fiat Regime?

I was asked by professor Lance Lewis (and many others) to reply to on a post by Doug Noland called Setting the Backdrop for Stage Two. Before reviewing Noland's post I would first like to comment on this statement made by Professor Lewis: " I have never been one to believe you can have a true deflation with a fiat currency." Before we can begin any discussion, it is imperative to agree on the meaning of terms. I happen to believe in Austrian economics and the definition I use when I speak of in

How much do you earn?

Okay. I need to rant about this issue. Almost EVERYBODY has been asking me about my salary and as you all should know, the amount of an individual's salary is actually supposed to be private and confidential. I used to ask my friends casually how much is the pay being offered for their jobs just to know the market rate. The reason why i said that I used to ask is because I know almost everybody's salary. LOL. I don't mind disclosing my pay to other fresh grads whom are my friends but I don't

Statins, cholesterol, health; fancy employee compensation, EBITDA, and company value

It is the year 2000. A fat sedentary guy eats steak and bacon three meals per day. His cholesterol is high. A doctor prescribes a statin. Now he is a fat sedentary steak-eating guy with a low cholesterol lab result. Is he as healthy as a thin active guy who eats mostly vegetables? Fast forward to 2008. We have discovered that statins have some side effects and that fat sedentary steak-eating guys with low cholesterol scores drop dead at about the same rate as fat sedentary steak-eating guys wi