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Name: Dennis
Gender: Male
Interests: In no particular order: Amazing Race (The), arithmetic, cats, Celtic music, Christian rock music, cooking, donating blood (12 gallons so far ... and no, not all at once), environmental friendliness, "German-style" board gaming, getting hitched, public radio, reading, religion (particularly Christianity and Messianic Judaism), sarcastic humor, speling, Star Trek, Star Wars (especially episodes IV - VI), worshipping in song and motion, writing
Expertise: Microsoft Office (I'm certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist). Things I'm interested in (generally, if I'm really interested in something, I find out a lot about it, which leads into expertise). I'm gaining more and more expertise in accounting, both through OJT and college classes.
Occupation: Accounting/Finance
Industry: Business
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
9/25/2004
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| Today, murdering certain people is officially worse than murdering other people. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_defense
What's wrong with this picture? Here are a couple of loopholes:
(1) Consider this scenario: Two men get into a scuffle in a bar. The bartender calls the police, who quickly apprehend the two men. The policeman determines that both men are equally at fault, and starts writing tickets for misdemeanor offenses. Then one of the men says he is gay. (Whether he is actually gay or not is beside the point.) Now the straight man is charged with a hate crime as well, whereas the gay man faces no additional penalty. This, even though both men committed the same act against one another.
(2) The protection against "assault" will be expanded to include "verbal assault", which can be interpreted as any speech that is contrary to the goals of gay rights activists. Do you think this is far-fetched? Think again. A woman's right to an abortion when needed "to protect the health of the woman" was expanded to include "emotional health", which simply means she feels bad about her pregnancy. Other kinds of assault might include "housing assault" if a gay tenant is evicted for not paying his rent, or "employment assault" if a gay person is fired for not doing his job.
(3) A gay person could file a lawsuit against any person that acts contrary to his interests. The other party will have to prove in court that their motives are not caused by the gay person's sexual orientation. Even if the gay person does not prevails in court, the other party will have been caused great inconvenience (and expense) just to prove their innocence.
(4) Reflecting back on point 1: In order to know who is protected by the hate crimes legislation, we have to know who is gay and who is not. Does this law protect only those gay persons who are publicly "out of the closet"? Or does this law inadvertently create the need for an official registry of gay persons {shudder}? If not, how do we prevent a person from "realizing" he is gay once he has a lawsuit to file, claiming to have been the subject of a hate crime?
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| We need a government that stops thinking of itself as a provider of services. Here's a good place to start: make health insurance like car insurance.
With car insurance:
(1) car owners are required to obtain a minimum level of liability-only coverage, in order to protect other people from accidents caused by the insured person;
(2) car owners have the option of obtaining better-than-minimum coverage if they want to pay for it;
(3) the insurance is purchased from a private-sector company, where competition keeps prices down;
(4) since car owners can't by car insurance directly from the government, none of the demand is siphoned away from the private sector. (This is important because if there aren't enough customers, there won't be enough companies pursuing their business for competition in the marketplace to keep prices down.)
So, my proposed solution:
(1) establish a uniform baseline for minimum healthcare insurance, and require it for anyone expecting emergency-room care; and
(4) abolish the current Medicare/Medicaid system AND ITS ASSOCIATED TAXES. This would require some kind of transition plan, but that's just a hurdle not a wall.
Steps (2) and (3) are already in place, except that the existence of Medicare and Medicaid siphons demand away from the private sector, which keeps the pool of potential customers low, thus preventing effective competition from keeping prices down.
There are, of course, those who can't imagine life without government "protecting" them. They can be consoled by the fact that a healthcare insurance company would be regulated by their state government, just like all other insurance companies.
Some will say, "everyone should be entitled to good healthcare insurance", or it's little-brother variant "it's cruel to deny treatment to people who can't afford it". Well, is everyone entitled to good car insurance? If you like your good health, insure it.
Some will say, "the premiums are too high". Well, just like with car insurance, they can either accept lower coverages or do something to remove risk factors ... like put down the tobacco and booze, or pick up the fork less and pick up the barbells more.
Your thoughts?
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| My lease for the apartment in Ennis, Texas expired at the end of April. Since I had no permanent job and no prospects for one, I've moved out. Presently I'm at my sister's house in Arkansas.
I don't have any job right now, so I'm using the opportunity to search for the next step. Hopefully I can find good work in town so I can like close to my family. For the most part, that involves a lot of website searching and online resume completion. Otherwise, Plan B is to find a part-time job in Dyersburg and live at the House Under The Hill while I finish my 4-year accounting degree online.
I had no idea that not having a 4-year accounting degree would be such a dealbreaker. Almost everywhere I turn, companies expect the degree before they'll even look at my skills. On rare occasions I'll find the phrase "or equivalent experience", but that's about the only break I get. That's why Plan B is to get that degree.
I did order CPA study guides from Wyler through Amazon. A complete set of last year's guides sold for just under $70, where a comparable set for this year was close to $300. Sometimes a year can make a big difference in terms of accounting standards. But I don't think that there are enough changes between these two years to make much difference. The biggest help that the study guides have been so far is to show me just how far away I am from being ready for the CPA exam. The thinnest guide, about business models, has a lot of details that I had never been taught. I think some of that is due to changes in the business world since 1994, when I got my business degree. So, long story short, the CPA exam is more of a long-term goal than I had thought.
Meanwhile, along with my job searching, I'm helping my sister around the house. Her husband is going to school, and she is working full-time to support him. That leaves precious little time for either of them to do housework. Mindy is also living in the house, but she is hermit-like, staying in her bedroom most of the time, and doesn't help with housework independently. So I do simple things like keeping the dishes washed. That frees Joy up to do cooking when she gets home. She says that seeing a sink full of dirty dishes waiting for her when she gets home just drains the energy out of her, which I can understand.
I'm also doing other chores (like washing clothes, walking the dog, sweeping the floor, and taking out the trash) and other projects (like watering her garden plants, turning the compost, and making plarn). On the weekends and some evenings she and I spend 15 minutes opening boxes that have never been unpacked and tackling other clutter that's been piling up. My sister's desk (which she almost never uses because of all the clutter) and the bookcases are already showing signs of improvement. Sometimes we get to play board games, another fringe benefit of having them close by and the house picked up.
Oh, yeah. In the process of getting moved, by car broke down for good. At least it was paid off, and I got to enjoy two years without car payments. Also, I'm glad it broke down in the "it's making a very disturbing rattling noise" sense and not the "it's a fireball on the Interstate" sense.
So, that's what's going on with me. Job searching, apartment hunting, and car shopping. It's sort of difficult to accomplish any one of them without the others. I can't sign a lease for an apartment unless I know where I'll be working. It'll be difficult to find work unless I can drive around. I can't buy a car without having an income. They sort of all need to happen at about the same time. My sister and her husband have been very gracious to let me stay at their place for a little while, and they also let me catch a ride with them when I need it. Those are both huge helps.
I think I've found the church I want to join in town. If I can make it work, I'd like to move into apartments I've found right across the street from the church. That'll make it convenient to participate in the many programs the church has. I've spent a number of years helping small churches scrape by; now I'd like to plug in to a church large enough to have well-organized programs that can harness my zeal. But first, the necessities: income, shelter, and transportation. | | |
| Last Christmas I saw a funny video clip at church. I wrote down the website, but then lost the slip of paper. Yesterday, as I was cleaning my apartment, I found it again. So, here it is. Enjoy!
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/index.cfm?hndl=details&tab=MM&id=8530
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| A co-worker told me about a group called Angel Food Ministries. To get to the point, through them I can buy a boxful of food for $30 each month. They say it's enough to feed a family of four one meal a day for a week, so I figure it's enough to feed my family of one a meal a day for a month.
So, now I need some help. What do I do with all this food?
I have at least some idea of what to do with these ...
6 Philly steak portions
2 lb Salisbury steak (6 count)
2 lb breaded chicken breast fillets
plus peanut butter, chicken noodle soup, cereal, frozen corn, frozen carrots, fresh onions, fresh potatoes, canned pears, and a pumpkin pie.
But what do I do with ...
four sirloin steaks (five pounds each)
2 lb split chicken breasts
1.5 lb beef ribs
four pork chops (six pounds each)
1 lb dried black-eyed peas
Any favorite recipes? The simpler, the better. | | |
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