When to quit

People have been talking about how the Dems should give up on Obama care in it's present form since Brown's win in Massachusetts. People also talk frequently about athletes who past there prime stumble on collecting undeserved paychecks. We now have had a vivid example of when to quit during the Super bowl.

The Who showed us you should quit when you can no longer do the job.

Ponzi scheme

Reading the letters to the editor this morning. The one letter is railing at a letter from earlier in the week calling social security a ponzi scheme. He argues that he has paid in and is entitled to his benefits. He also argues that S.S. has worked well and is solvent besides being basically the only pension plan out there any more. He does acknowledge the need for adjustments to benefits and taxes as we go forward.

The letter writer is right on at least one statement SS is not a ponzi scheme. Social security is a pyramid scheme and we're working towards inversion. When ss started there were multiple workers for each retired person. This is important to remember because we are not paying our own way. Our social security tax (fica) is not meant to provide us with any benefit it is there to provide benefit for those already retired. In the 1940's there were 42 workers for every retiree we are nor at 3 workers for every retiree. This is a a pyramid that could easily flip if unemployment stays at it's current high level.

This is one point that Bush was definitely right we need to find a way to allow people to invest their money for their own retirement. Even if it radically changes benefits and promises made to current recipient of SS. I believe this has to be the starting point to any deficit reduction plan. Without adjustments that will no doubt be painful Social Security will bankrupt our country.

Living

A question was posed in Sunday school last week. How important is money to having a good quality of life? I argued that money would effect the quality of life greatly. One of the women argued that money is of no consequence. That if she could have lived her life in better personal relationship with her daughters she wouldn't have cared how much or little money she had.

Now I'm thinking I was wrong the quality of life is not effected. However the quality of living is effected immeasurably. What I mean by this is that your life is your life money or not. Money only allows you to do different things within your life. Life is the people you relate to at home or work, isolation is the true detriment to a good quality of life.

Public knowledge

A pew research quiz was done before the Mass. special election to find what people know about the U.S.. You can take the quiz at the pew research center the national average was 6 correct answers I got all twelve right. The thing that struck my interest was in reading about the quiz the results showed that Republicans were better informed than Democrats. The margin was slim and other factors go into the results age and gender, older and male tend to be better informed.

Makes me wonder if the knowledge we process has a bigger impact on the policies we support than labels. The other premise would have you believe that Reps. care more and thus become better informed.

I don't think either party cares more than the other. I do think this lays more credibility to the complaints of media bias. Media is one of the keys to an informed electorate if people are only fifty percent informed on average this points to a short coming.

Then again maybe the people just don't care to be informed.

Supreme Court

After the State of the Union address much hype has been going around. The hype is centered on President Obama's criticism of the recent Supreme Court decision and Judge Alito's reaction. Obama states the supreme court has opened the door for unlimited campaign spending including foreign owned companies. Alito reacted by mouthing the word liar during the speech.

Both parties are wrong to some degree. Alito is wrong because there probably will be a certain amount of increase in campaign spending. Obama is wrong for criticizing the court for doing their job.

The court's job is not to set policy and determine what might happen because of their rulings. They are merely to read the law and determine how it fits with our constitution. In essence the court is there to make sure we play by the rules.

We may not like the rules all the time but the rules keep society working in an orderly fashion.

Celebrate

Today is the 75th anniversary of the beer can. So sit back pop the top and enjoy a beer,maybe two.

Fitness

Last year I took up the hundred push-up challenge. Two times I attempted the challenge to no avail my joints,shoulders, elbows and wrists didn't cooperate.

Two weeks ago I bought the extreme gym chin-up bar. This is a devise you hook over the door frame to do various exercises. The first day I did five sets of four chin-ups for a total of twenty. Yesterday I did five sets working to exhaustion each time and did a total of 37 chin-ups. I alternate on days between the chin-ups and the next day pull-ups to work different muscle groups. The pull-ups have increased even better than the chin-ups going from 5 to 16.

This device comes from several companies I opted for a generic version and am really happy with it, I bought it at Aldi's for twelve bucks. Real improvement with no pain can't beat that.