Anonymous Opinion's Politics

So, with my folks reduced to a pair of coughing, nose-blowing versions of Edith and Archie Bunker - complete with their assigned rocking chairs - I've been watching a lot of TV with them. They have about two hundred more channels than I do, but somehow Mom has gotten a penchant for the Hallmark movie channel. (Yes, Dad has long since relinquished control of the Remote.)

I've sat through three movies with the same exact saccharine hackneyed plot. It may have cured me of chick flicks forever.

Let me save you a few hours:

Single Attractive Female:
a) Strung along by long time schmuck of a boyfriend
b) Widowed at a young age
c) Divorced and left with a kid by a schmuck of a husband - kid is always a young boy in need of a father figure

Schmuck of a guy who lays claim to her first
a) Has lots of cash
b) is not attentive
c) has an agenda - aka is out to "change her"

Good looking guy
a) war hero
b) neighbor
c) random dude

Add meddling family/ friends who do not like schmucky guy

...Meddle Meddle Meddle...

Schmuck gets the girl

Schmuck proposes to the girl (after buying out an entire restaurant so they can "be alone")

Girl accepts

Good looking guy declares his love for Girl

Add Coincidence / Miracle

Nice looking guy wins Girl after fantastic kiss

Schmucky guy left out to dry

Happily Ever After

The End

To call it the basest form of a Jane Austen novel would be an insult to her. Then again, if a guy just read this, I'm sure he couldn't tell the difference.

It's more like Reader's Digest.

Pray Mom gets well as soon as possible. If she's out of commission any longer, I may have to figure out how to reprogram the remote so that the Hallmark channel is parent-proof.

So, I'm back home in MD, our Christmas is celebrated today for some unknown reason, and dinner is in ten minutes.

My mom, dad, brother, and grandmother are all sick with coughing / sinus infection gunk.

Knocking on wood, then washing my hands, hoping I stay healthy to the end of the year.

There are times I really hate winter - and there are a few things I add to my daily regimen that make it a little easier.

Before bed to avoid chapped lips:

Burts Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with pomegrante oil

It's kind of fruity and not medicinal tasting.

Other option that lasts a bit longer before bed:

Chapstick Overnight lip treatment

Also, because I tend to get dry cuticles in the winter:

Burts Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream -

Now I would not normally buy such a thing, but my mom received it as a gift last year, and I tried some and I think it works - but might do just as well as vaseline, but smells nicer.

I tend to take semi-long and very hot showers - which is apparantly the worst for your skin as it dries it out very quickly. I found a lightly scented, non-greasy, long-lasting moisturizer by Johnson and Johnson that I received a sample of a while back.

Johnson's Soothing Naturals Intense Moisture Cream, 5 fl oz

I always wonder why these things have such large bottles - so large that I'll never use it all, but at five ounces, I don't think I'll make it though half the winter without buying more. I've found it at the Pathmark on Lancaster and in Target. It tends to hide in the baby aisle.

Sadly, it's difficult to find a cream that will both last a long time and not make you smell either like something to eat or like a bordello. At under $5, it's not a bad deal.

And the obligatory look-like-a-marshmallow down jacket.

Hey, it doesn't let the wind through, and I got one for half price a few years back. Boy, I needed it today.

Watch closely - Hunt Valley Mall and The Senator are in the background.

And would you believe there was a small kerfluffel in the work re-gift exchange over a bottle of Blackberry Manishewitz?

...when I get a statement from the Social Security Administration, stating the following:

In 2017 we will begin paying more in benefits than we collect in taxes. Without changes, by 2041 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted* and there will be enough money to pay only about 78 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits. (*These estimates are based on the intermediate assumptions from the Social Security Trustees' Annual Report to the Congress.)

I've been working and paying social security taxes for 13 years, but I don't think I'll see it, as I will turn 62 at exactly the same time that the Trust Fund is exhausted.

In 2041, I don't think my 78% of the Social Security Income I'm entitled to would exceed what I could have done by myself in bonds, or even a money market had I been allowed to keep that portion of my income.

My cumulative Social Security + Medicare taxes exceed my gross pay from the first 6 years that I was working. I kind of wonder if I would have been included in poverty statics for those first six years while I was in high school or before I finished college.

Look, I get that most Americans don't know how to save. Yes, I lost about a third of my Roth + 401k investments in the last quarter. It was a risk I was willing to take, and I know full well I've got another 30+ working years ahead of me.

But I wish everyone had the ability to opt out of Social Security and Medicare, especially for those of us who currently will not even receive what we put into it.

I wish there was some sort of, "Don't bail me out!" option that says, I am excused from both this tax and its benefits. I know what I'm doing, I will assume the risk that things could go badly for me on my own, I will also take the chance that I might be able to do better than the broken promise on this little paper that you send me every year. If I opt out of this tax, I'm saying that when I'm 62, I will have the means to pay for my healthcare and provide for my own living expenses without government intervention.

For pity sake, Congress just needs to budget what needs to be paid out to current recipients. I want off this train. I don't want to either pay into it, or pay out of it. For people working less than fifteen years, just give us a choice or fix the problem.

Politicians have no kohones when it comes to fixing it, and aren't even slightly self-interested because they can either give themselves a raise whenever it pleases them. Their pension plan is better than any other poor voter out there - they're highly motivated to spend two decades in office to get that pension which is the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary, not to exceed 80% of their final salary - and at $174,000 in 2009, that's not bad at all.

If you want to play into class warfare, and if you really want to make everyone the same class - start by placing the politicians where most Americans are - no pension plan no matter how long you've occupied your seat. Give non-veterans the kind of care regular medicare allows, if they served - let them in the VA system.

Frankly, this whole Madoff thing makes me feel like Social Security is some elaborate Government sponsored Ponzi scheme that only worked well for the greatest generation because of the baby boom that followed. Generation X is not so fortunate.

I neither wish to be a contributor or beneficiary. Sounds like a neutral argument. But if we let anyone jump off the Social Security Ponzi it fails worse than it already has because right now there are 3.1 workers per beneficiary. The whole thing is set to crash.

And don't get me started on the bailout of everyone and their second cousin...