Mistress Monologues - Nina's Known Universe Blog

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What was I thinking? True, it was always supposed to just be emotional ravings to release pressure and stress, and yet, as always, I had hopes that I would say the right thing or make the right point, causing light bulbs to go off all across the country.

That is never going to happen. People will agree or disagree as they always have. No one will ever change their point of view for that implies they were once wrong...or misguided. And yet I persevere.

Reality is a cruel Mistress. She stands back laughing while well meaning citizens cheer that the Government wants to provide 'free' healthcare...excuse me, 'affordable' healthcare for all while ignoring the fact that the Government is not a self-sustaining entity. It isn't even the care they are providing, it is insurance to pay for care that may or may not be needed.

Americans who work pay taxes. Tax dollars fund all of these programs as well as the salaries of all the politicians who push for them...programs largely utilized by Americans who don't work or are not working right now or who lack the education or motivation for a better paying job.

If our Government wants us to be charitable, let us pick the charity and make all donations to the benefit of another fully deductible on our tax return. This includes supporting family members, our pets and the funds we pay to support school programs.

Reality also rolls on the floor when rural Conservatives cry for the good old days, forgetting that until 911 they all thought Bush Jr was an idiot that only got elected because of his daddy; always pointing out that he was no George Sr.

Short term memory loss is typical in politics. Whomever is in command today is to blame for it all. They also forget that while Bush cut taxes to amazing lows, he followed up by spending billions on a war that would normally be funded by tax dollars. Those tax cuts should have been reversed once the war began but he didn't want to upset his party.

Ironically many of these die hard right wingers now bitching about Obama's spending are currently enjoying benefits that the Democrats pushed into existence. Benefits they need because the company they worked for was Republican so naturally they laid everyone off so the managers could still get their summer bonuses.

All the while neither side takes any blame for anything always blaming the other guy. Bailout money for corrupt financial institutions was put into effect at the tail end of Bush's term, subsidies for healthcare this year is Obama's baby. SSDD.

Don't cry to me about this party or that one. Don't cry to me about this president or that one. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. If you funded their election you will get your way at the expense of everyone else. No matter who is in power – someone is going to get screwed. Hello? Is this on?

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. If you talk down this admin you will have 1000 conservatives singing your praises ignoring their own parties contribution to the problem. If you talk down the last admin you will have 1000 liberals cheering you on, also denying that their party is doing anything adverse currently.

Sure, helping big business helps the economy in theory. The theory being that they will use their extra money to make more jobs...only they don't...they buy cars and go on vacations that you and I will never afford. If it was really their money it would be fine.

But don't use my tax dollars to bail them out thinking they will reimburse all those drained IRA's (which is not the taxpayers responsibility either) when the reality is that they need that bailout money to pay bonuses already earned by their employees.

After 6 years working for an investment adviser, I can tell you that no one ever read their contracts or prospectuses, and no matter how many times we told them, INVESTMENTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, they would still whine at every dip in the market. Investing in any financial product not guaranteed by the FDIC comes with RISK.

Not only that, but an investment with 1 million shares that was worth $1 million dollars but is now only worth $500k still has 1 million shares. If investors sit on those shares, eventually the value will come back – assuming it was a mutual fund and they are willing to wait at least 5 years maybe 10. It's called speculation for a reason.

And in theory, those who have been blessed with success should want to help those less fortunate, but who wants to be forced to do that? Especially when those being forced to help are feeling like the charity should be coming their way not the other way around.

Like the time I didn't have the extra money for some charity I had donated to the year before. The callers attitude that I was some how beholden to donate again annoyed me. I gently informed them that due to my financial situation I should be on their list of needy and to feel free to send us a food basket in lieu of the funds we donated the year before which we now needed back.

They never called me again.

Additionally, I have recently read the US Constitution in full, it isn't as long as you might think. And while it does have a lot of vague language about powers of Government that can easily be 'interpreted' to allow them to do anything they want with congressional support, it does not say that healthcare, insurance, or even having a retirement fund is a guaranteed right to us citizens.

In fact it is so vague in regard to the specifics of the Commerce Clause, the one that allows them to require we have car insurance, that the mandate attached to the new healthcare bill will likely be over ruled at the state level as being outside the scope of our Federal Governments powers. So why bother?

What it comes down to is this; The Federal Government is supposed handle the Military which protects our country from outside influence along with Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Trade, etc. They are supposed to regulate the industries that have the potential to cheat all of us, but they are not supposed to manage those industries.

Federal Tax Dollars should not be spent on any program that is not directly related to the good of this nation as an entity. State funds are for the management of non private services, like Fire, Police, Teachers, EMS, Roads and other items which benefit the whole state thus being worthy of tax dollar investment.

Mandatory insurance will not guarantee any one will be healthier or that they will not spread disease, unlike car insurance, where reckless driving with out insurance is actually a threat to another life and livelihood.

No...if they really want to guarantee a healthy country the solution is so simple and far less expensive than the $894 billion dollars this new healthcare bill is going to cost us. Instead of this stupid plan, take a tiny bit of that money and use it to vaccinate the entire country from birth for FREE along with all the annual flu shots.

Inoculations are supposed to be the best prevention after all. If they truly want anyone to believe it is for the good of the entire country, that they want to prevent a pandemic, then they shouldn't charge for the cure.

As for everyone else, I am sorry, but America is, in fact, a Capitalist nation. While I personally would love to live in an Utopian Society based on brotherhood, pitching in, neighbors caring for neighbors, and doctors healing just for the pleasure of saving lives, that is not going to happen any time soon.

There are too many folks taking advantage and too many that just don't care either way.

Medicine is a business. Yes, the prices are too high for basic care as far as I am concerned. $700 for a band aid without stitches in the ER is outrageous, and I never would have bothered had I known the cost up front.

That is issue one, non disclosure of prices until the bill comes. Non itemized bills. General ER my ass. But business is business. Supply and Demand.

Not to mention the fact that hospitals and doctors already offer financial aide to the uninsured (which also explains the $700 bandaid) for which they are compensated for by the Federal Government in the way of tax write offs.

And don't forget the millions if not billions of dollars that are collected in the way of tobacco tax and alcohol tax, funds supposedly dedicated to paying for tobacco and alcohol related illnesses. How do this dollars factor into this new plan? Will universal health care eliminate those taxes? NOT

The next step, after the vaccines are done, is that we need to allow Americans to order medicines online from any source they choose. Let the individual decide if FDA approval is worth the extra $400 on an Rx. This will never happen mind you...there is way too much cash to be made by big pharmeceutical companies to ever allow that.

Beyond all these things, people simply have to stop wanting it both ways. We want to have the best doctors, the best research, the best drugs and the best service but dammit we don't want to pay for it...yet we do via our taxes every single day with more cost yet to come.

We want to have a home business and make lots of money on our own services, crying that we have to pay any taxes on that income, but that doctor who spent 12 years in school so he could carve the cancer out of your body without nicking a lung is not worth his fee.

If our Government, both Federal and State, truly wanted to save this country money, wanted to trim the fat and wanted to put tax dollars back in the pockets of working Americans, they would eliminate 50% of their personnel. All those committees being paid to find ways to save money or to implement the money already spent.

Lastly – I imagine a Government ultimately ran by volunteers. Someone not getting paid for their effort has nothing to gain by screwing us. Imagine all those politicians having day jobs? No time for lobbying, no time for deal making, they work, pay taxes, and feel the sting of coupon day at the local market...just like the rest of us.

Our military would be comprised of those volunteer citizens in favor of fighting, they can even bring their own guns and ammo. Think of the savings! Remember volunteer means unpaid.

Meanwhile those in favor of giving more than receiving can take to the streets as good neighbors, painting, sweeping, beautifying, serving, caring etc. They can bring their own supplies and their own gloves, goggles and masks...and of course their very own hard earned dollars. Think of that savings!!

Like the old saying goes...”If you want something done right...or at all...you should probably get off your ass and do it yourself.”

In addition to my suspicions that gas prices only spike to make the true increase less painful...I mean would you really be happy going from $2 a gallon to a $2.50 if it didn't spike to $4 first? I can't help but notice that those most effected by the 'economic crisis' are people that were living beyond their means to begin with. Lots of toys, expensive house and debt up to their eyeballs.

So when the unexpected happens, like they suddenly have only one income, they are unable to make ends meet, and things get repossessed and foreclosed on. Credit is not a game you play where you see if you can spend every cent you earn on your sum total of bills each month. And he who dies with the most toys only wins because he stiffed his family with the debt.

My husband, the Lord Emperor of my Universe, is in the supply chain business. The sheer number of brand new vehicles towing small homes behind them as people traveled 100s of miles to camp out over the holiday weekend boggled his imperial brain. How can we be in a recession when you see that?? Not to mention that almost half the population still eats out at least once a week...with kids...eating machines??!!!

It must be a national thing or that big chain store wouldn't be advertising the savings a family of 4 would have per year by buying groceries instead of eating out...hello...can you say duh?? Don't they teach home economics anymore?? My husband and I do hit the fast food too much in the summer because of the heat but we don't even have kids so it isn't a financial hardship to do now and then because we don't waste our money year round...just during 100 degree weather.

Everyone is very busy, and that is super. But take it from a lazy person, there are plenty of healthy, convenient foods to keep around the house that is still way cheaper than eating out all the time. In this age of Diabetes and The Glycemic Index, convenient healthy snacks have become much more common and affordable...if you ever want tips on that subject send me an email

When you really think about it, doesn't it seem like our quest for more of everything has pretty much guaranteed we are all gonna die if there is every a national or planetary disaster that cuts off the supply chain? We all enjoy the niceties of life and if you can afford them without hocking a kidney then enjoy! Just try to keep this thought in the back of your mind...nothing is forever and the entire world could be turned upside down in a blink of an eye.

It could be something as minor as breaking your arm and being off work for long enough to get behind on your mortgage not to mention the cost of the medical bills since you may not have insurance. It could be something major like having the bread winner get killed in a car wreck with no life insurance for his widow and 2 kids. It could even be that thing that most of the planets religious population agrees is coming...they just disagree on whose God will save them...and that would be Armageddon.

Sadly I really have no solution for this except maybe that people try to put more thought into the what ifs and less into the instant gratification of what they want at the moment. Perhaps the reason health care is so expensive is because we are a society that treats their bodies like amusement parks and not like the sensitive machines that they are. We eat, drink, party, smoke, drive too fast, and participate in many sports that can kill you on purpose for fun!

If I were an insurance company, I wouldn't insure half the people I know. Maybe deep down we all have a death wish, well I don't, I am a wuss with a vivid imagination who can visualize the accidents as if its already happened to me. {Shudder} Then again being a chicken makes me twitchy and that is also dangerous. ;) If people would take better care of themselves, and not live in harms way - so much, then maybe they wouldn't need so much health care?

Who knows. All I do know is there are a lot of people who owe more than they could afford if one income were to be lost or even decreased. So why buy the house you cannot afford when the one you can afford just needs carpet and paint? Why buy the brand new car when you can get a perfectly good used one for half the money? I guess it must be for show. Someone once said the clothes make the man. Pshh! An asshole in a suit is a still an asshole. Meanwhile a saint in rags is still a saint.

Anyways, it just isn't "going without" when you have to give up dining out or this years trip to the Bahama's. Going without is only having enough food for your kids and not yourself or enough to pay the water bill but not the electric. However losing your house because you could barely afford the payment to begin with, then maxed your credit card on a big screen TV for your bedroom and a DVD player for the new Mini Van only to lose your job because you just can't not party and are always late or hung over is not an economic crisis...it is stupidity 101.

Credit is supposed to be for emergencies or for earning frequent flier miles. As you reap so shall ye sow. Or something equally profound. You know, these little rants have really been helping. I just hope that my outbursts and condescending view of humanity are taken with a grain of salt. Once the thoughts leave my mind to grace the page, my passion for the topic tends to wane. And since I am not running for office any time soon, being wishy washy is still allowed.