Category: Politics

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Tax Time, it’s the Right Time

It has always been a good idea to donate your used vehicle to the different charities that are looking for donations. These days they have even started to accept more things than ever to donate, such as airplanes and even your unused/unwanted time shares, which I think is a pretty cool deal.

The numerous vehicle donation programs are always looking for donations, especially this time of year, since we are all in the mind set of taxes at this point, it is a good time to consider donating what you can for next year’s tax filing process, for a nice write off, and helping others that need your donations for support in many ways.

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Favorite News Program

In my opinion there is no news program better than the Today Show on NBC. The reason that the Today Show is my favorite news program is because it is one of the first news programs that I can remember ever watching. Jane Pauly and Bryant Gumbel have now given way to Matt Lauer and his cohorts. Another figure that I can remember very well from those old days was Gene Shalit and his movie reviews. As a matter of fact, Gene still makes an appearence on the current show every now and then.

Then there is none other than Willard Scott and his recognizing of people who have reached their 100th birthday. Still, the Today Show in my opinion delivers the morning news like none other and is the best among the major networks. There is nothing better than turning on my TV and watching the Today Show each and every morning. I found some really great satellite TV deals, so it’s nice to really use them! It has been a tradition that has gone on in my households for many years and will be for many years to come, regardless who the host of the show is.

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It’s All About The Data

There are so many ways to safely keep copies of your documents, photographs and digital music or video files, that it can be overwhelming trying to to keep up with them all. I have a tiny home office and as I was moving things around to make room for a new computer desk, I came across an assortment of media with backup files on them. I found floppy disks, zip drives, DVDs, and flash drives. What I really need is to check out the newest data storage systems and convert all the old files off the old media. After all, new computers do not even have a floppy drive anymore. How am I ever going to access the files on those old floppy disks now?

I’m sure the guys in our IT department at work are laughing at me. They have a lot bigger fish to fry, with protecting the data bass for our entire company. They have to worry about archiving years worth of business records, daily backups for every computer in every office, and data recovery in case of a natural disaster.

Their worries are huge compared to mine. Even so, I would be very upset if something happened and I lost all my years and years of photographs and special documents. I spent days scanning all my old files and organizing them. I was surprised to find how many papers I had saved over the years. Everything from medical records to high school report cards and souvenirs from all the concerts, trade shows and special events that I’ve attended over the years.

I remember when I worked at the law firm and had to keep track of the daily disk backup. Every morning I would come to work and rotate the disks from the servers to the storage area. And each night I would give the latest backup disk to the senior partner for him to put in his briefcase and take home with him so we had secure offsite storage. Now there are much faster and easier ways to accomplish the same thing. I do love progress!

data safe and secure
Operationalizing Spark with MemSQL
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It’s All About Gold

Since I live and work on a farm there is no gold IRA  or gold 401k for me in the near future.  From what I’ve been reading online, the big thing now is gold being the number one alternative for the Pension Plans that most white collar workers have at their disposal through their employer. Times are increasingly becoming more uncertain, while gold is always a good investment and always has been.

Gold Coins Gain has a very informative website that has a ton of good reading all about gold. Their History of Gold Coins is something that everyone should read and learn about. It is well written and an easy read that can be found at the bottom of all of their pages, so you can’t say that you can’t find it anywhere! They also offer a free Gold Guide that I have all ready ordered for myself, that I can’t wait to receive in the mail soon.

Did you know that the central banks of the world, governments and other institutions have been hoarding gold, along with increasing their gold holdings, getting away from the paper assets that have been around for a good long while.  People are being advised to learn all that they can while stating that gold will add stability, growth and protection in your portfolio of investments.

So even if you don’t have an IRA gold or 401k gold option there are other ways to get your hands on the world’s oldest asset of choice and Gold Coins Gain has the information that you need to jump on the bandwagon, there is still enough gold to go around. I for one don’t want to miss out on a great opportunity, so I plan on reading my free gold guide cover to cover and find the right option for me, because I don’t think that there is a hidden stash of gold around here that I can count on keeping my head above water for the next couple of decades, believe me I have looked!

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Looking Into Health Insurance

Now that Brandon is turning twenty four he has started looking for health insurance in nc. As most of us know, the health care system has turned into a huge nightmare all across the country. It seems like every month we are being told that there are cliches in the Affordable Heath Care act and their website, which isn’t helping the general population one bit.

One has to wonder when this will all be straightened out. As hard as it is on people looking for health insurance, I have to imagine how hard it is to be in the health insurance business. I have a good friend that is in the life/home/auto and health insurance business that I just might have to call and see how he is fairing throughout this whole mess.

He is a good guy, who opened his agency in 2008, right when the economy went south. He has two young kids, a new house with a mortgage and a business that he sunk everything he had into, that is just barely hanging on. It would be good to hear his voice again.

 

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Got Milk?

Was watching the news yesterday morning (I’m thinking it was The Today Show) and they were running a story about how within a short period of time milk is going to cost $6.00 a gallon! They were blaming the increasing cost of fuel for the increase, which is the reason that the price is rising on just about everything.I think that is horrible! Milk is going to become a luxury item at that price! For many years there has been a huge campaign about how healthy milk is, but I think that people will end up drinking more sugary fruit flavored drinks like kool-aid instead of drinking milk if it gets that expensive! If milk gets that expensive, I imagine the milk related products like cheese, ice cream, butter and yogurt will rise in price as well!

Again, I think that is going to be driving people towards eating the cheap junk food instead of dairy product.

love me some milk
Got Milk?
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Paper Trade Account

This morning I am taking advantage of a nice quiet house, not that it is ever loud, to get online and learn more about the stock market. It seems to me that the huge decline in stocks these past several years or so has brought the price of many stocks down to a price point where there are good opportunities for smart investors. Four years ago if you told me to invest a couple thousand dollars into a handful of stocks, I would not have gotten much for money. The price per share would have been so high that I would not have many shares. Now that the price has dropped to what I call an adjusted level of reasonable price points, the challenge is to find the businesses that offer good value for the investment and that have a good to excellent chance of coming through this recession as a healthier, stronger company.

If you find the right companies for this investment strategy, you will be rewarded in a few years with rebounding share prices. A good friend told me about a web site that is an online stock broker and also a great learning tool. They have a great feature called a “paper trade account” so that you can play the market without risking real cash. Once you are comfortable with the results of your paper trading efforts, you can easily open a real account and manage your real shares. What a wonderful idea that I believe I am going to check out here real soon and would urge others to try out as well, just to get a good idea of how it all works before jumping in.

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Mesothelioma Issues

I have to say that I don’t know all the much about the much talked about this Mesothelioma Disease that a good amount of people are having to deal with these days. I do know that there seems to be a lot of commercials for Mesothelioma Attorney practices advertising their Mesothelioma Lawyer services for people to take advantage of.

I just recently found out that a neighbor has been in contact with one of these practices. It seems that he was in the Navy back in the Vietnam days and spent some time on a submarine, which is where he contacted this disease. He has been experiencing symptoms for years and had no idea what the cause of these symptoms was until just a few years back. I’m glad that he found out about this condition and is taking action and could possibly get some money to help with the situation. Our Vets deserve all that they can get for what they did for us and our country.

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What Is The Best Debt Relief Plan?

Most of us are still reeling from the recent turn of events with the economy, well I guess it isn’t all that recent, this has been going on for over 5 years now. And it is most unfortunate that there really doesn’t seem to be any form of light, what so ever, at the end of this long dark tunnel.

There is a lot of debt relief advice out there that we have all heard from friends and relatives, co workers, neighbors, at church, in magazines, books, lawyers, credit companies and of course it’s all over the Internet. From what I gather there really isn’t a quick fix or a one size fits all plan that fits everyone in every situation. What I would do, as I do with most advice, I read and listen, ask a lot of questions and then take what I want from it all, use what I can, toss out the rest with the garbage while hoping and praying that I’ve done a good job with all that I have. The rest I leave in God’s hands.

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The Global Food Shortage Crises

I was reading on the Internet an article titled “How to end the Global Food Shortage.”  The article was explaining that the US Government subsidizes the US farmer fifty one cents per gallon to divert their corn to biofuels.  The article was also explaining that a lot of the third world countries could grow a lot more of their own food if they could get a little bit of help with getting good seed, fertilizer, and irrigation techniques.

I was very disappointed to read that the US Government was subsidizing the farmers to divert their corn from the food market.  Other plants can be used to make biofuel that are not part of the world’s food supply.  Is there no end to the stupidity of the Government?