Smart financial tips...

Many people decide to forgo life insurance believing that if finances are tight that it's something they can not afford. Some rely on life insurance through an employer, yet then if that employment ends, they are left without any coverage. There are a variety of different places online where you can get a life insurance quote with many different types of terms and conditions that can fit into almost any budget.

Technology and the bathroom...

For many who have problems getting in or out of a bathtub or shower there are new advances in construction such as walk in showers with special railings and of course the walk in bathtub. Yet for many the expense of re-doing a bathroom is out of their reach, which creates a need for shower chairs which have also come quite a ways when it comes to design than when they were first put on the medical supply market.

Mattresses made in the USA

One of the things I always check for when I buy any kind of a mattress is where it was made, because the materials used and the location they are made can have an impact on the quality of the product. I like this particular foam mattress for that very reason. The materials used to make it are made here in the US, and by a really well known company, BASF. Once years ago we bought a low cost mattress and discovered it was made of used shredded material that did not even appear to be clean. That really soured me on less expensive mattresses where you don't know where the material came from.

Too much focus on the package rather than the contents...

I often wonder what would have happened if some of our previous presidents who were not exactly "attractive" were running today with the way the media is and the public focus so much on looks rather than the actual content of the character or the qualifications of a candidate. Back then candidates focused more on words rather than if they needed botox or acne treatments to look good for that next 30 second tv sound bite...

Not all conservatives for McCain...

(Denver, Colorado) In his keynote speech on May 23 to the Libertarian Party National Convention, Richard A. Viguerie, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, declared today that John McCain is “trying to get conservative support on the cheap.”
“Senator McCain has had the Republican presidential nomination sewn up for over three months and has done nothing to convince conservatives to come off the sidelines and enthusiastically support him,” Viguerie said.
In his speech, “Conservatives are off the GOP Reservation: Will they find a home in the Libertarian Party?,” Viguerie said that Democrats and Republicans have both failed America.

“Republican leaders have treated conservatives with utter disrespect and, in turn, conservatives have lost all respect for Republican leaders. Millions of grassroots conservative activists and donors have left the Republican Party and taken with them their volunteer time, their checkbooks, and their votes,” he said.
Viguerie said, “Today, the Libertarian Party has a historic opportunity to provide leadership for America.”
A complete text of the speech is posted on ConservativeHQ.com at http://conservativehq.com/news-from-the-front/libertarian-convention

A great thing to have when traveling...

I like to take quite a few photographs, so when I fill up a card from my camera and then delete those after uploading to the computer, I like to make a quick back up of the photos on my flash drive as a safety back up. Having experienced laptops being stolen and/or crashing, there's nothing worse than discovering all of the previous photos you took were gone. For me it's one of those situations where now that I am doing this, it's never become needed.

The land down under...

I was listening to the song "Down Under" by Men at Work, which started me thinking about the "Land down under". Even before an old friend moved to Australia, the idea of vacationing there has been on our list of dream vacations. Once you start looking at some of the different deals for Sydney Hotels or Melbourne Hotels you discover that it's really much more affordable than you might imagine to stay in Australia.

For me the history aspect of a visit would be my primary focus, the lure of Brisbane Hotels being one of strolling the areas where Aboriginal tribes first lived before the English settlers arrived. The whole history of the original creation of a penal colony there has been something I've spent many an hour reading about. It's entirely possible that some members of my family that stayed in England could have very well ended up in Australia.

Then of course there is Perth, the first free settlement in Australia where not only is there a rich history but the temptation of Perth Hotels where some of the room service offerings include the famous vegemite sandwich.

Huckabee makes a tastless joke but...

When you watch the video of former Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, it's clear the joke was a stupid one and one that he's apologized for. It's clear that his off the cuff joke made when a chair fell is coming from a point of view that Obama would be afraid.

Most people would be afraid when a gun was aimed at them. I don't think the offensive nature of the joke can be defended. What is interesting though is the crowd laughed, not a huge amount of laughter but some did. It does not sound as if the crowd reacted negitively to Huckabee's statement.

The belief out there that if Obama was president someone would try to assassinate him has been broached by Obama supporters. One fashion designer created shirts asking Who Killed Obama. Doris Lessing stated:

"He would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would kill him,"

Some have stated this fear is a reason to not vote for Obama.

Even Obama's wife has addressed this as a concern.

Which means, while the joke was offensive, those that are expressing outrage that anyone would even think of this (beyond the outrage over how stupid the joke was) seem to be forgetting that despite the stupidity of the joke, the initial expression of an attempt to kill Obama has been talked about again and again.

I'm fairly certain that out there somewhere a black comic has made jokes about Obama or some other black presidential candidate being killed, there was a whole Chris Rock movie where that was mentioned. There have also been quite a few jokes out there that while don't involve death, could be considered offensive:

"In New York, Catholic groups have forced an art gallery to shut down an exhibition of a six-foot image of Jesus in chocolate. Or, as Democrats call it, Barack Obama." --Bill Maher

"Barack Obama was in New Hampshire Sunday. When informed of this, President Bush excitedly asked, 'Did we catch 'em?' --Seth Meyers

Bottom line, over and over again people are selective in what outrages them...

Live and let live to a point...

I'm not an anti-bug person and I try to be a live and let live person when it comes to the variety of wasps, bees, etc., that come into activity this time of year. Yet we discovered that carpenter bees were trying to set up shop behind some of the vinyl shutters we have on the house as we were getting ready for a party to be held here.

Since they do cause damage by boring holes into the wood, it was necessary to kill the few we found and to re-seal around the shutters so that more did not appear. While they look large and mean and are very agressive in protecting their terrority I've been told that the larger males do not have stingers. I did not attempt to test this out though...I'm allergic to bees and even if I wasn't? I'm not that adventuresome when it comes to wanting to learn certain things first hand...

The exterior package meaning more than what's inside...

Following on the theme of us expecting perfection in our candidates that at times borders on unrealistic expectations, the judgemental nature of how we critique the dress and appearance of candidates has also made me ponder how superficial we are as a nation. Rather than focus on what the candidates plans are or their qualifications, we critique their dress, their showing of clevage, their haircuts making them focus on running to get acne treatment at the first sign of an inopportune pimple as opposed to communicating what they can do to make this country better.

Perhaps in some ways the days before television did have it's purpose, since there was not the ability to show the same clip repeatedly of one moment and people actually read the whole speeches in print, or the audio only so that the decision was based on the actual content as opposed to how it was packaged...

Questions of morality in politics...

Recently there were two high profile stories here in Ohio related to elected officials and sexual misconduct. One created a resignation, one is refusing to resign, at the face value both acts were consenual in nature, neither created a situation where the elected declared they had a problem and headed off to alcohol rehab but they both created questions of public trust.

This made me start thinking about previous issues of sexual misconduct of elected officials and the difference in how the media treated events years ago compared to today. Today we need to know everything, and we judge accordingly most times with the trials taking place by public media venting. Years ago the press knew of these affairs, knew of quite a bit of the personal misconduct but did not reveal that information. It was felt that even electeds had the right to a "private life" as long as a crime was not committed.

While I believe the public has a right to know some of these scenarios, I also can't help wonder how many of us would hold up as well under the constant public eye of scrutiny...

Cities divesting of property...

There has been quite a bit of discussion in my city when it comes to the topic of commercial real estate since our city owns quite a few pieces of land. Some purchased, but a majority of the smaller parcels that are not worth much (in the $400 - $500 range) that were given to the city.

A land deal has been getting quite a bit of discussion, which while the price would be below what the assessed values, would get the city out of being the owner of many of these pieces in one area. This makes sense since a city should concentrate on provide basic services as opposed to being in the land speculation business.