Musings of a Dumb Ass

In talking with a neighbor today I learned some things that point to where we are in a plain and factual way and says exactly how we are in a simple way. After 28 years of service to our State my neighbors' husband went into retirement about two years ago because of blindness. His State retirement benefit is $830.00 per month and he also draws just over $900.00 per month in Social Security which at first glance gives them survivable income in our state and locale. But wait.... they were informed last week that their state health insurance for the two of them, both are over 60 years old, but do not yet qualify for Medicare, will be raised beginning Jan.1 2009 by $80.00 per month, going from $529.00 a month to a whopping $609.00 every month.
Since he was the breadwinner in the family from day one she has nothing to draw from so their situation is pretty bleak. All of the normal blame terms for them such as ' She should have been working' or 'they were bad planners', and some will be crass enough to say they deserve their situation, none of which works for me.
As a society we have proven we are as susceptible to the unbelievable as those who fell prey to all the tyrants in history and suffered defeat and death believing their way of life was best when simple logic would have told them better.
Considering health care in our nation it is odd that absolutely no one in authority has a problem with the unbridled power that's been given to the insurance and medical community. We seem to not notice Doctors' and medical technicians are grossly overpaid in this country unless you say something about it around them then you listen to them whine about their education costs and sacrifices plus insurance costs, letting that be a license to rape every pocketbook that comes into their realm. Insurance companies are no different and have been the beneficiary of bad legislators who made it law that everything in your world be insured whether you like it or not.
Since the 1950's our Government has listened to moneytalk and balderdash from insurance companies, the medical community and their lobbyists while the voice for the people has been mute and anything said to the public was poppycock and double talk. Congress has been very efficient in designating the Government as 'The Collector and Enforcer' for Insurance companies and the Medical Community even as costs went far beyond the average individuals ability to pay for services recieved. Instead we have been introduced to Socialism way beyond Karl Marx' wildest imagination. At least his master plan called for a limit on profits a Corporation could make.
It is interesting to note that Marx believed that Capitalism would become Socialism which would then become Communism. I think old Karl was in tune with reality. We're just too dumb to see...............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Death is so much a part of life it's actually a great deal of what life is about. When it's time, it is simply time. It's the journey to 'it's time' that is remarkable. Most of life is spent without really considering the end. When the end comes in sight death becomes not so much about the dying as about the living. If death is unexpected then it is totally about the living.
I think other than finality, life and death isn't understood. I believe in the end life should be retrospective and celebrated. Possibly our fear of death may be because we don't know how to live.
Everything possible should be wrung out of one's journey through life. That can be done without being mean, dishonest, inconsiderate or irresponsible. If life has been one of dream chasing whether or not achievement was realized, then that was the greatest life possible. If it was one of servitude and drudgery then the chance for real life was missed forever more.
In my little world there's always someone who must make preparation for the end and it always causes me pause for thought. There's nothing can be done about it, no deals to make, no replays to be had and no ease of pain for those left other than what time gives. We just have to keep going till there's nowhere to go. It's how you got there that counts. That is the human condition........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

The most miserable time of the year for me will soon be past. Those who are religious show the same narrowmindness to those who are troubled with 'the season' that they dish out to those who have a problem with religion in general, which is a total lack of understanding and no desire to consider anyone else on their part. Those who appreciate the time minus God are of the same genre.
I really don't think most who dread this time of year feel their dispair over anything about religion, instead it is a time of even more hypocracy and class warfare and has little to do with love for your neighbor, unless of course you're messing with someone else's spouse or just screwing over everybody and everything possible.
The season might have been different for me if I'd had even one happy Christmas as a child. Somehow or other each holiday time presented me with either poverty beyond or family squabble and separation or all of the above. The absence or presence of religion or God never seemed to change anything, so it's not about that.
As an adult I've had a few that were somewhat on the pleasant side but mostly it's a bit like a woman who hates sex but does 'it' because that's the way it is and even fakes an orgasm now and then to keep the peace.
The year doesn't really come alive and start happening for me until about March. I'll do my best to survive until then.........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

In listening to all my circle grapple with what's wrong with our economy and deal with how to fix it I find myself in awe that no one ever really addresses the real problem. None of the everyday folks that I rub shoulders with is ever able to bring into their conversations the necessity of individual responsibility. To look to the Government for a handout has become the American norm and way too many are getting it and most of the rest want it.
When you're sitting next to a forty something on disability and a fifty something who is already recieving a retirement benefit, I'm always amazed that they have no understanding that in the end whomever has a job and goes to work is actually supporting them. The idea that a small investment by yourself and your employer for twenty years and sometimes less will somehow provide you with the life of Riley for possibly 40 more years is absolutely sheer bullshit and deserves no seat at the table of reality.
There's no use in pointing out those who have enjoyed this kind of luxury in the past for more years than they were employed as proof that it works, because those are some of the big reasons we find ourselves at the door of financial armagedden now and those who have a shred of intelligence are unable to direct their thought process at the causes of our dilemna. No one really knows what the percentage costs of our dollars spent go towards supporting the sorry asses who choose not to work, both retired and on disability, but we know that a lot of the dollars of each of Detroit's automobiles go towards the medical/benefits of their retired while none of those imports share in this burden. Everything you spend money for is impacted by this, unless of course it is durable goods you're buying in which case it comes from another country, which by the way doesn't give a damn whether you're 'retired' or not nor if you have medical care.
I think enough time has passed that we can figure out that a 'service economy' predicated on the idea that we'll pay each other to take care of us is a lame idea. I think also that since we've given up all the jobs in factories that produce durable goods that are tangible and can be touched we can give over to the idea that the "Great Experiment" is a failure destined to go by the wayside with little chance for recovery. It has been a great ride though.........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Life is a riddle that will never be unraveled. It takes on so many directions one can never be certain what it will do next. For the one who really needs answers and contemplates all the how comes and why's it is particularly frustrating to come up with no logic on the entire experience.
All things living are locked into life without respite until there is no longer life. This is true of all things in and on the ground. Drugs possibly give a form of respite from life which might explain some of why it is so attractive to those who use them, but as soon as you come out of the fog, there's that life thing again, and everything that depressed you is still there.
Two of the most depressing places I've ever been were to the Zoo and any Nursing Home. The eyes of the creatures in both places tell it all, neither place has a future.
Awareness of life and how it ends makes homo sapiens the grand marshal of our journey because we absolutely know it's going to end. I'm not sure if any other animal knows what's going to happen but some make preparations that would suggest they know something monumental is about to happen, like dogs, when death is on its way, if the dog is able, will go somewhere private to make a nest then wait on the end to arrive and go peacefully when it's time.
Humans, on the other hand, as a rule fight to the very last breath. In life we don't really have a way to think about finality and get this cockamamie idea that we can beat death, usually destroying the quality of life in our final days waging war with the end, trying to retain the power of the Ace in the Hole in that a Supreme Being is going to give us some sort of eternal existence. That sort of existence is problematic, because eternity is then to be spent in absolute servitude to a mysterious keeper. Nothing is said about the existence of sex, good booze, gambling, travel, sports, fast cars or designer clothes, so why would one want to sign on. It sounds a lot like a zoo.
There is something interesting about Humans though. As age overwhelms us we can get a bit like the dog and just want to go make our nest and have privacy till the end. We call that 'getting weird'. I'm not too sure about that.
I think the cold weather makes me think about 'things'. Also I'm definitely a 'Dumb Ass'.........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Maybe I really am getting out of touch with the world I live in. The election came and went and I missed my predictions on several fronts. Of course that won't stop me from thinking about where we are and where we're going, which is daunting.
President -to-be- Obama said a week ago the thing that will prevent us from EVER recovering economically, he said simply that he wouldn't hesitate to print enough money to straighten this economy out, no matter how much it takes.
It would appear that the new President along with about 108 percent of our citizens have no intention of applying any sense or logic to our predicament, possibly because all of the cures will require an honest assessment of how we got in trouble, and also because any meaningful cure will require that we ALL go back to work as opposed to making the doctors and lawyers richer by proving we are disabled and entitled to spend our life in leisure with guaranteed income. It will also require that we get some parity in wages at the workplace. In my neck of the woods the average factory and government employee wage is $30 to 35,000 a year, or about fifteen dollars an hour which adds up to five or six hundred bucks a week.
Congress had no trouble anteing up the money to take care of the Wall Street and Banking crowd, and no problem to take my money to keep the same irresponsible clods in homes they weren't qualified to buy, and to cover the rears of the assholes who made it possible for them to do so. My money will make it possible for them to continue on in a world that's out of balance..... for awhile. This ain't over yet.
It would appear Congress will hand out my money to the car manufacturers who will continue on doing what they done to get in trouble, including the lopside payscale for auto production workers ($72.00 plus an hour when retirement and benefits are factored in) taking the money from my neighbors who make the $15. an hour. This is totally mad besides stupid.
Right now we're dumb enough to be overjoyed at gas being down to $1.59 a gallon. What?????????? What the hell happened to the memory of dollar gas? Or for that matter 50 cent gas......... or you could look at history and find about about 15 cent gas. And you could break the bonds of unforgivable ignorance if you wanted to understand how we got in so much trouble....... but then again, that takes too much effort. Look for $5.00 gasoline by Christmas 2009 Dumb asses.... we deserve it....... stupid is as stupid does.