November

People have been talking about the November elections and who should be worried. a recent U.S. chamber of commerce poll sheds some light on the direction people will turn. The poll asked what the greatest obstacle to job creation is over the next 2 years. The results were 24% high budget deficits, 24% expansion of government's role in the economy, 22% higher taxes, 13% trade barriers or tariffs,17% other.

Now if I was a Republican I might worry about those 17% other respondents, but a Democrat has to worry about the other 83% of the voters. Seriously don't the first 4 categories look like the Democratic platform

What is old

With the passing Sen. Robert Byrd much has been made of his longevity in office. In fact it raises a debate among some as to how old is too old to do a competent job in congress. There are more than ten 80 plus years old members of congress or the senate. These older legislatures agree on at least one thing they are doing the best work of their careers now. The seniority that comes with age gives them an advantage when it comes to committee chairs and the allocation of funds.

So is it any wonder that they want to raise the age for full S.S. benefits to 70 or maybe older. Some of the reasoning for raising the retirement age makes sense. When S.S. was started the average person didn't spend 30 years in retirement more like 5-10 years. This disparity is one of the elements dragging the fund to bankruptcy.

So maybe it is time to raise the age of retirement. The right age is the question some jobs football player mid 30's is the right age, where for a librarian maybe 75-80 is the right age. Maybe what we need is a floating scale where 65 remains the retirement age for some jobs and for other jobs it rises. Some jobs it just doesn't make sense to raise the age of retirement, after all do you want an 70 year old fireman trying to rescue you from a fire. Some jobs physically prevent a worker from doing a good or safe job after a certain age.

If we are going to adjust retirement ages or benefits let's do it wisely

What's important

For weeks we've been inundated here in Cleveland with the saga of Lebron James. Well it's over and he's gone and I don't really care.

During all the hoopla about 2 weeks ago we picked our first cucumber. This week we've been overwhelmed picking everyday sometimes as many as ten cucumbers plus the beans have started coming in.

You see it isn't what we watch that matters it's what we do that counts.

The Road

I read the Road about 6 months ago and was moved by the story. When looking for a video to watch last night I picked up the movie version. The movie was ok but lost some of the desolation and hopelessness of the book. The casting however was masterful Viggo Mortenson as the father was perfect. The rest of the players worked around his central figure very well making the story come to life.