Hi, Billy Mays here!

This has been a rough time for celebrities. It started with Ed McMahon. If you've never heard "Here's Johnny!" , then you must not have ever watched a TV. Then there was Farrah Fawcett. Her story had been known for a while as she battled cancer. It's a shame that her death was overshadowed by Michael Jackson's sudden demise and subsequent channel-clogging news frenzy. Interesting that we as humans tend to glorify the positive and overlook the negative when someone dies. The shocker was Billy Mays. At least in the US, he was as well known as Jackson and even more so, depending on how old you are and how much TV you watch. You didn't have to see the TV to recognize the voice. I got the impression, after watching his show "Pitchmen", that he genuinely tried to help people get their inventions and products marketed. What was cool was that he pitched life insurance just like he pitched OxyClean! That's a true pitchman. We're going to miss you, Billy Mays.

And another one bites the dust!

What is it about political office that makes a guy like Gov. Mark Sanford do something as stupid as having an affair with someone in Argentina? I don't know which is worse; the affair or the fact that she's in South America. It's not like you can run down to the Walmart parking lot. You have to pretend you went hiking for a long time. My favorite prez had it goin' on. Willie Bill just did it at his office!
One has to wonder what kind of people we are electing into office. I don't know if politicians err at the same percentage rate as the rest of us or if aberrant behavior is a political prerequisite. You have governors with prostitutes. You have governors having affairs. You have senators playing footsie in public restrooms. I think these are all distractions so that we don't notice the other back room deals going one that cost us money and freedom. Politics on the state level invariably involve some sort of deal that benefits the governor's wallet, family, or area he is from. It's almost like a rite of passage. Some states are worst than others. Please note that I haven't done any research on this so I'm going off of memory. Louisiana has a terrible record of state officials screwing the public over. New York has its share of idiots. You see what came out of Texas. Their current governor has commented on secession. We all know what happened the last time! Come to think of it, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, thus starting the Civil War.

Jon & Kate + 8 + TV = Divorce?

Who knew this would happen? I don't think having 20 cameras following a family around is a good idea and it certainly isn't good parenting. What will the kids think about their parents in 10 or 12 years when they see reruns of their upbringing? It's a shame that Jon and Kate would put their own need for fame and money above the proper raising of their children. I wondered what their decision would be when it popped up in the news a few weeks ago. I was hoping that they would kick out the cameras and try to salvage their relationship and normalize their family life. Apparently their egos got in the way. I'm surprised that they are going to continue the show. Are we going to have the "Jon visits the kids on his weekend" show or the "Kate goes after more child support" show? This kind of crap also reduces TLC's legitimacy as a true learning channel. All I learned was not to put your family on TV!

Obama and PETA sittin' in a tree ...

What is with PETA these days? I guess they would be happy if we were all just germs living in a mud puddle. A natural reaction by anyone bugged by a bug is to smash its little guts out. A fly has no "redeeming social value" except to let you know what restaurant not to eat at! I'm curious to see how big the scandal over the fly's demise gets. From what I can tell, when Obama killed the fly, the news folks called PETA to get their opinion. Sounds like the news channels are trying to drum up a controversy. I did hear one news chick say that there are over 175 million bugs for every human on Earth. I wonder what PETA's opinion is of all the bugs that get eaten in southeast Asia?

I've been healthcare jacked!

The proposals and plans being passed around Washington that deal with our healthcare crisis read like a crazy man dreamed them up. Obama claimed in his campaign that he wanted to reform our healthcare industry. What a wonderful idea! I just don't know who is really adding up the money. The assumption is that saving a trillion dollars over the next ten years would pay for insurance for the currently uninsured. Obama asserts that $106 billion could be cut from government healthcare payments to hospitals because there would not be any uninsured people showing up at hospitals. The theory behind this is that these people would have insurance either through Medicaid or because Ted Kennedy's proposed health insurance plan would hold a gun to their heads to ensure that they buy insurance. If you are paying the hospital either way, how is that saving? That is just the tip of the iceberg. Obama claims that he can reduce by $110 billion the payments to hospitals and other providers (but not doctors), because the system is becoming more efficient. When was the last time he sat in the outpatient surgery area for 3 hours waiting for a procedure? Not too much efficiency there! The additional claim is that Medicare drug payments will reduce by $75 billion. Does that mean that Grandma will now have a co-pay? The price of some drugs is ridiculous. The drug companies claim that they have to charge those high prices because of the cost of R&D and liability insurance. Have you seen foreign drug prices? You can buy Plavix for $47 from Europe instead of the $135 in the states. Why is that? Because the drug companies' arm is way up the FDA's ass! The FDA is like their puppet. It got that way because of the powerful drug company lobbyists. They have made sure that legislation keeps us from buying foreign drugs. Lobbyists are named thusly because, back in the old days, the type of business they conducted in Washington was not acceptable for the Oval Office. They were forced to do their business in the lobby! What I don't understand is that apparently medical providers across the healthcare spectrum say that there is as much as $2 trillion in waste that could be cut. Why do they have to wait on the government to force them to stop the waste? Why not start now?
This whole idea of making me buy health insurance is bullshit! What am I supposed to buy it with? I work for a company that will not provide insurance either due to its prohibitive cost (as a percentage of total business costs) or because they are cheap (probably the real reason). The last time I checked on insurance, the premium was around $650 a month. That's $7800 per year. If I got sick, I would spend that $7800 plus the $2000 deductible just to get to the part where the insurance company then pays 80%. How is that in any way fair? The blame is laid on the people who show up at emergency rooms with no money. I don't go to the doctor. Apparently, I have been blessed with relatively good health. Most of the people I see going to the emergency room for non-life threatening ailments are on Medicare or Medicaid. They are the "entitled" ones. I guess they think that since everything is covered, they can go there for every stupid little twinge or tingle. That is one of the areas where waste is obvious. Are these the people the reason Ted Kennedy is going to force me to buy insurance? There is a fairly large group of Americans who fall through the fiscal cracks when it comes to who pays for what. These are the people who make too much for any public assistance, but not enough to afford health insurance. How will the government force them to buy insurance? What will they do if I don't buy it? One part of the proposal is that they will take my tax refund or maybe even increase my withholding (like a garnishment). Part of Obama's proposal to pay for "healthcare for everyone" is to increase taxes on the healthcare industry. How does that work? All it does is hurt the public in the long run. It is like buying ice cream. The industry has reduced the size of the carton to 1.5 or 1.75 quarts. Oh yeah, they also jacked the price $3. This ice cream math is already at work and has been for years. All the current healthcare reform proposals will do is extend this formula.

GOP rabblerousers

What in the world is wrong with the GOP these days? Ol' Newt is out there criticizing Obama for failing at his attempt to stimulate the economy. Although I'm a bit nervous about the amount of promised spending, I don't see anyone jumping in with a better idea. The only real way to stimulate the economy is to increase consumer confidence which is getting harder to do with the consumer bearing the brunt of the effects of the failing economy. I can't stand the "pass it down" attitude of the business leaders at the top levels of companies. They are ultimately responsible for our current situation. They are just passing on the cost of their losses by laying off employees and cutting benefits. All of this economic crap happened on the GOP's watch! How can they be a credible alternative to Obama? This is what happens when a Texas oilman and his cronies are allowed to run the country for 8 years. One other thing. Who cares what Dick Cheney has to say anymore? At least Bush is laying low. Cheney is still running his mouth like he has influence. Maybe someone should take him bird hunting!

Credit Cards

It's nice to see somebody going after the credit card companies and their questionable business practices. Some are worse than others but they all need some sort of reforming. They will give a $300 card to anyone with a Social Security number and a pulse. In 2005, the credit card companies lobbied the government to revise the bankruptcy laws to give them a better position financially. They felt like they were getting screwed when people could just walk away from their credit card debt. Isn't that what unsecured credit is? There is a certain amount of risk involved in marketing your cards to a bunch of people who can't afford them anyway. Now they have government backing to support their predatory lending practices. Then there is the high interest rate and exorbitant fees. Let's use the $300 card as an example. Say you go over your credit limit and then pay late. Not only do you owe the minimum $15 payment, you also owe up to $80 in fees. This $95 is almost 33% of your balance. If you continue not paying, you wind up being charged this 33% every month. This amounts to 396% interest the way I figure it.
Another interesting thing about credit cards is the way they affect your credit score. If you have them maxed out but pay on time every month, you look pretty good as long as your credit card balances aren't a large percentage of your income. If you have cards that all have zero balances, it will negatively affect your credit score because of the potential to run them all up at the same time. People who pay off their cards every month don't make the credit card companies any money so the companies will eventually close their accounts. Credit card companies like it when you carry a balance because they are making anywhere from 6 to 21% interest on their investment. It seems backward to reward those with debt and penalize those who pay off their cards every month.
The latest legislation appears to give the consumer a better position to be treated fairly. The credit card companies have had free rein to act like loan sharks with their business practices and it is about time we kick their legs out from under them. I can't believe that some of the companies are receiving federal bailout money while charging the above-mentioned 396%. Of course, this isn't any different than Chrysler receiving bailout money and then closing a U.S. plant and shifting the jobs to Mexico but that's another blog topic.