Coincidence?

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2013/02/19/107274

Around the presidential election, the price of gas was decreasing and the unemployment rate "miraculously" "surprisingly" went below 8% (7.8%) .

Now gas is increasing and is about $4/gallon here and the unemployment rate is increasing.

Now we know our "virtuous" president wouldn't manipulate the "stimulus"  money to spend a bunch of it in the months leading to the election would he?

Great Man speaks

There are some great people that get it!

Finally Snow!

We finally had a real snow.  We got about 10" on Thursday.  Our choir practice was cancelled.  It seems like all the "bad" weather occurs on Thursday, the day we had sleet was on a Thursday and choir practice was also cancelled (I think).

Before this snow, we had only a very small amount of snow adding up to a grand total of maybe 2" of snow.  Even though areas around us got much more!

Snow makes for some very beautiful scenes!

What Dems have Done

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, already the most unpopular governor in the nation, has his work cut out for him at his annual "state of the state" speech on Wednesday
The fiscal crisis caused by pension underfunding in Illinois is so bad that some hospitals wait a year to be paid by the state for insurance claims.
Illinois' pension systems are in the worst financial shape of any state at 39 percent funded when no less than 80 percent is considered healthy. State pensions are in the hole by the staggering amount of nearly $97 billion, or $20,000 per Illinois household and nearly four times the annual state revenue.
There might be some movement afoot. Majority Democrats, who have relied for decades on labor unions for political and financial support, are showing signs of a willingness to confront organized labor.
"To date, we have received no cooperation from the labor unions representing state employees on addressing these challenges," powerful state House Speaker Michael Madigan wrote in a January 30 letter to the head of a labor coalition.
The legislature will discuss this week proposed laws to boost worker contributions to pensions, raise retirement ages, eliminate the cost-of-living adjustment for retirees for several years, and end some abuses. http://news.yahoo.com/illinois-governor-bear-grim-news-over-pension-crisis-204320138.html

The state that I am living in has been controlled by the democrats as long as I have lived here.  They have made IL the most bankrupt state in the nation.


The Ways and Means, Education and the Workforce, and Energy and Commerce Committees today unveiled the ObamaCare Burden Tracker (#ObamaCareBurden).  The Burden Tracker is a real-time online resource to help the public keep track of all of the new government mandates, rules, and red tape as a result of ObamaCare.
The burden of ObamaCare is already being felt, even though many provisions of the law, including the requirement for most Americans to buy government-approved health insurance or pay a tax, are not set to take effect until 2014.  According to the Obama Administration’s own estimates, ObamaCare will require American job creators, families, and health care providers to spend over 127 million hours per year on compliance.*  That burden is growing with every new regulation published, and the Burden Tracker will be updated as those new regulations are issued throughout the year.   
Every hour and dollar spent complying with the Democrats’ health care law are time and resources being taken from spending time with family, growing a business and creating jobs, or caring for patients.  Since many small businesses do not employ in-house lawyers and accountants, compliance costs are especially expensive and burdensome.  Given the new demands of complying with the law, it is not surprising that over 70 percent of small businesses cite the health care law as a major obstacle to job creation.
What could be done in 127,602,371 hours? 
    Mount Rushmore, which took 14 years to build, could be constructed 1,040 times.
    Halley’s comet, seen from Earth once every 76 years, could be spotted 191 times.
    The Empire State building, which took 7 million hours to build, could be constructed 18 times.

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=319029

The Obama administration has been publicly upbeat about the coming rollout of its health care law. But a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office suggests that at least one set of influential observers anticipates some turbulence in the law’s first years.

On several important measures of the law’s success, CBO’s numbers are pessimistic compared with earlier estimates: Fewer uninsured people will get coverage, insurance options will be more limited, and more employers will stop covering their workers. Perhaps most noteworthy, the report suggests that the new health insurance marketplaces set to launch later this year are unlikely to be completely ready in time.

That negativity came cloaked in the careful language of the budget office—what former Bush health official Tevi Troy called “heavy bureaucratese”—but the report signaled CBO officials are worried that key provisions of the law are not going to work as intended.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/budget-office-predicts-rocky-start-for-health-care-law-20130206

The costs are higher than "promised" by P.O., it is unlikely that you can keep your old coverage (as promised by P.O.).

In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.

Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS.

The IRS’s assumption that the cheapest plan for a family will cost $20,000 per year is found in examples the IRS gives to help people understand how to calculate the penalty they will need to pay the government if they do not buy a mandated health plan.

The examples point to families of four and families of five, both of which the IRS expects in its assumptions to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for a bronze plan.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/02/01/irs-cheapest-qualifying-family-health-insurance-plan-will-be-20k/

"In a democracy, we get the government we deserve."  We (not me) reelected P.O. and this is a result.  Many want others to pay not to work hard and earn.

Poor CA

It used to be that people came to the US for medical treatment, now Obamacare is leading to this!

Back to CA:

Poor California not only are they one of the most bankrupt states (http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-california-debt-clock.html) with some cities declaring bankruptcy (San Bernardino, Calif., is the latest municipality to seek bankruptcy protection for its $45 million budget shortfall, following Mammoth Lakes and Stockton, which was the largest U.S city to ever go bust. Bankruptcy filings by these three California cities have raised questions about the scope of budget issues on the local level and whether there will be more. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/three-california-cities-bankrupt-tip-iceberg-says-fmr-155121281.html )

But I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago and heard that "bitter cold" with highs only in the 50'sF and lows in the 30'sF was striking CA.  It was intersting to me since at the time we were having a hot streak with the High almost 50F and lows in the low 30'sF.

Since that time, we have have -5F temperatures with high almost reaching 10F, my daughter's temperatures have been as low as  -12F (that I have seen maybe it was lower at times).

So poor, poor CA, we must have pity on them!

Doesn't make sense

I don't understand.  My son just had a birthday and he is dc (not roman numerals) years old.  But my LW and I are so young.

Do you think it is possible for your children to streak years ahead of their parents?

This year my daughter will reach a milestone birthday and she was our baby for so long!

I mean we haven't reached middle age yet!  Some might say that I am still very immature!  So how can we have mature-ish kids?

Of course we have been married 2/3ths of our lives.  We must have gotten married when we were -15 years old or so, YES that MUST be the explanation!

Sneaky Ground Hog Day

This year Ground Hog Day sneaked up on me.  The only way we knew was because my LW heard on the radio the day before.  Every Ground Hog Day, we watch the movie "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murray.

We like the story of a selfish man learning that only by helping others can he be truly happy.

The movie's premise is that 1 day (Ground Hog Day) in the life of a Weatherman covering the famous Ground Hog P Phil is played over and over.  He finds that the day has no consequences and tries to get in bed with his female producer by learning more and more each "day" to make himself her ideal.

Of course it doesn't work and he decides to eventually (after trying to kill himself numerous times) to try to help others.

It is my understanding that it was actually filmed a few miles west of us.

A fun movie, you should try it if you want a happy movie to watch.  It is not very deep and goes as you would figure, but who needs anything else?

Not Gambling?

There are some interesting bets that can be made on the Super Bowl.  One is Frank Gore's yardage vs. Louisville's score v. someone.

Personally, I don't like to bet.  Basically, I am cheap and don't want to lose the money.

However, the Super Bowl is one of the most bet on games.  There are a lot of bets that can be made like first TD person/ team/ offense or defense and scores at quarters, win/ lose, etc.

Though I do have some investments in mutual funds and stocks.  Perhaps they are worst bets then gambling.  In bets it is easy to see if you won or lost quickly.  With stocks, you buy it at a price and it goes up or down and you have to decide whether to sell or buy more and when to sell.  I like to say that even if the stock is down from when I bought it you don't lose money until you sell it.

I recently bought a stock that went down 20+% the day after I bought, fortunately I did not buy a lot of it and so far I haven't lost any money on it ( i.e., I haven't sold it).  At least there is still 80% of its value left, unlike a gambling bet where you lose  all of it!

Super Bowl apathy

When there are no teams that I am a fan in the Super Bowl like this year, I don't care anything about it.

It is interesting to me that it seems like every show that I listen to has something about it.  Usually, I listen to either Sports radio or Talk radio at home and they are full of the Super Bowl trivia.

I do like to watch the Super Bowl commercials after the game, some are really good like the VW ad with the little kid dressed as Darth Vader and some of the PepsiCo classics.  But I don't plan on watching the game!

This year there is a player on Baltimore who will have this game as his last one. Of course, in general they don't mention that he was involved in a murder and is basically a punk.

QB's tend to get a lot of attention and the coaches are brothers, but who really cares (other the fans of the specific teams) about this game?