Just Musing About This and That

My '06 Honda Civic went out of warranty Tuesday. I had been hounded by Honda to extend both by mail and on the phone. I just didn't think it necessary. This morning, I drove to eat breakfast and noticed a rattle I had not heard before. I'm thinking...uh oh...what now? I've had little things go wrong with this Civic such as a windshield pump motor going out, and some other minor things. I started thinking back to my '88 Pontiac GrandAm. Three weeks out of warranty and the automatic transmission going out.

People seem to get upset over the least little things these days. I had to go to the doctor recently for a semi-annual checkup. There were only 3 people in the waiting room when I arrived. Stunned by that, I asked the receptionist what the deal was. She replied, "The economy. People are starting to neglect their health now because of money woes." Things really are getting bad. But, I digress...one of the three women there got upset because she had been waiting "at least 15 minutes and going to be late for a hair appointment." She was furious. I felt like telling her if she ONLY knew how many times I had come to this doctor's office to wait 3 hours before seeing the doctor.

There is a company in my area that has always prided itself with its motto of "Once employed, always employed." A German company, their feeling was it was too expensive to lay off employees who they had invested thousands of dollars on training. Well, not any longer. Last week that company laid off 57 of it's employees, an 18% reduction of its workforce.

Many that follow this blog know I have a beagle named Ralph. Ralph "adopted" me back in April of 2008, about the same time I started up this blog. He played a prominent part in my blog novel, "Diary: Alone on Earth" also. It seems that Ralph has become afraid of squirrels. About a month ago, I noticed he had a nice scratch on his nose. Concerned it could have been a snake bite, I took him to the vet. Vet said he had not been bitten by a snake. Most likely, he rubbed it against the fence or something. That may be the case. But, now, instead of wanting to go in the backyard and bark and run and chase squireels, he wants to follow me into the house. I made him go back outside and play. About two minutes later, he is jumping up on the back door, yelping and wanting in the house. There was one nice sized squirrel on the back deck that Ralph wanted no part of now. It appears his days of chasing squirrels has come to an end. The squirrels of Lakeside Court have had enough of Ralph's barking and chasing. One squirrel in particular has had enough!

Everyone have a great weekend.

Let Them Eat Dust!!!

House Democrats currently plan to tax the wealthy [article link] to pay for the 1-2 trillion dollar government run health care package. The good news? If you make under a million bucks a year...no taxes! The millionaires club of the USA will fund the 30 to 50 million (depending on how charitable the Democrats are when they make these estimates) "Americans" without health insurance. More good news for the millionaires club...the 5.4% surtax will be stolen...eh, taken from their AGI. This means those nasty old millionaires will have to fork over a portion of their Capital gains and dividends. How dare these people try to become successful in the USSA? How dare they try to make a good living for themselves? The audacity of such people! The object now is make all the money you want...but be prepared to "spread the wealth" when Uncle Sam comes knocking.

But, leave it to good old Charlie Rangel to ease the pain of the USA millionaires by saying, "...causes the least amount of pain on the least amount of people.” I bet that makes those capitalist pigs feel better about being eased out of some of their fortune, right? And, Big Brother is taking matters a bit further; if you don't obtain health insurance, you will lose 2.5% of your income for not doing so. All this is to bring health care under control, you understand. It has nothing to do with government wanting to control health care (GM, banks, etc.) and intruding upon your life. No, this is all for YOUR benefit because you are too damn stupid to do it on your own. So, dear old Uncle Sam is going to take care of you...whether you like it or not.


Sarcasm aside (well...as much as I can), this is a disaster waiting to happen. If you like the Canadian style of health care, you'll enjoy this. As they do in Canada, a committee will decide what amount of health care you are entitled. If you need that heart operation and, let's say you are 60+...hey, you had a good life, right? The point of this all sarcastic interlude is this; the government is incapable of running itself. How the hell will they be able to run a trillion(s) dollar operation like health care for 97% of Americans? Has the federal government ever run anything efficiently? Ask yourself those questions when the Democrats continue us on this health care slippy slope. And, please, spare me the "We can't continue with what he have now blah, blah, blah." I've seen enough of this blather. What do I propose? I propose we keep the government out of our lives. That is what I propose we do about health care. There's got to be a better way than what the Democrats are trying to shove down our throats; socialized medicine.