Trick or Treat!

Taking Flight! & Ripping you off!

"In recent years, carriers around the world, especially in the U.S. and Europe, have added or raised fees for everything from checking bags to printing out boarding passes.   It has added to the bottom line of nearly every airline in the world."

ps...I don't check bags!

Source: CNBC

The Old Homestead!

Well...the old homestead in North Stamford is back on the market again.   It was a great home for almost nine years.   That's a far cry from my fourth floor walk up growing up in the south Bronx!   That's for sure!

Current owners are asking $799K for it...but they bought it for over $900K (not from me)!   Back in 1989, I paid far less than what they're asking for but still took a big loss when we sold it in 1997.   Maybe that's when the stress really originated!   See below for more stress!

Stress can kill you! It almost did!

Looking back through the years from 2003 thru 2010...I would call those years the epicenter of my stress years!   We're talking about going to the roof...and jumping off!

• In 2003 my contract with a former Fortune 50 company was unexpectedly terminated a few weeks after I was diagnosed with cancer!
• From 2003 thru 2010 I had a few engagements/jobs I hated!   I did enjoy one...but all the rest....I just couldn't handle the politics and the bullsh*t!
• At the end of 2009, my 401K was less than half of what it was in 2005 and I'm talking big bucks people!
• Our current residence, back then, was valued at much less than what we paid for it.
• In 2010, we had to do a "short sale" on our planned retirement condo/home in Florida.   I/we lost more big bucks...almost 2/3rds of what we orignally paid for it!
• My stomach's cancer resurrected itself in 2012.
• There's a whole lotta sh*t that I can go on forever about...but...

Sh*t happens, and all in all...I'm very fortunate,   I need to keep reminding myself about how fortunate I am.

Feet...meet ocean!

Ocean...meet feet!

Here it is October 18th and this is the first time these two have met each other this year!   For me, as a beach freak, this is pathetic...October 18th!!!   Where was I all this summer?   Obviously, I wasn't at the ocean.   Trying to make up for the delay by sharing some quality time with great friends on Singer Island, Florida.

GOP's Terrorist Teabaggers!

Source

Bridegroom - An American Love Story

I stumbled across this during my daily ventures into the blog-o-sphere. It really touched me.   The complete documentary will be aired on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network on October 27th at 9PM.   I'll be there to check it out!

Here's the original YouTube video that started a Kickstarter campaign and made this happen!   As you can see, this has had over 4 million views.

Negotiate Obamacare? WTF!

I watched this one on Sunday and big Kudos to Bob Schieffer!

Financial Illiteracy in America!

From Today's New York Times:
Even if we grade on a very generous curve, many Americans flunk when it comes to financial literacy.   Consider this three-item quiz:

• Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent a year.   After five years, how much do you think you would have if you left the money to grow?   More than $102, exactly $102 or less than $102?
• Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent a year and that inflation was 2 percent.   After one year, would you be able to buy more than, the same as or less than you could today with the money?
• Do you think this statement is true or false: “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund”?

Anyone with even a basic understanding of compound interest, inflation and diversification should know that the answers to these questions are “more than,” “less than” and “false.”   Yet in a survey of Americans over age 50 conducted by the economists Annamaria Lusardi of George Washington University and Olivia S. Mitchell of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, only a third could answer all three questions correctly.

More of this must read article is here at the N.Y Times!

The P.O.T.U.S. is a NIGGER!

OK folks...let's tell it like it is.   I'm sick of everyone skating around the issue.   I've been around since Eisenhower and I've never seen such animosity, disrespect and outright hatred for the President of the United States as I've seen with President Barrack Obama.   You can say or think what you want...but let's call a spade a spade!   (No pun intended)!

• He was born in Kenya!   Just ask Donald Trump!
• He's a Muslim!
• He's a liar!   Just ask Joe Wilson!
• He's a nigger! (not a niggah...but a NIGGER)!

Forget the fact that he has provided his birth certificate!   Forget the fact that he graduated from Columbia University and Harvard!

Did I mention he was the first black President of the Harvard Law Review!   Forget the fact the he's actually bi-racial.   Did I mention that Mitch McConnell's primary mission was to ensure that President Obama would serve only one term!   This is a man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!   In spite of all of that, one fact remains.   In the eyes of too many American Teabaggers and Rethuglicans...he's still just a nigger!   Sorry Oprah...but it is what it is!

The "Shutdown" according to Bachmann!

"I think the reason is because President Obama can’t wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care. Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people."

Source: The Daily Banter

Sarah Palin (V.P. Candidate) & the "shutdown"!

"It’s beyond shameful to see Barack Obama disrespect and mistreat our World War II veterans so blatantly.   Obama’s political stunt to 'shut down' their memorial by barricade is to elicit an angry response to generate bad publicity for people the president uses in his continual blame game.   The difference is obvious.   There aren’t any World War I veterans alive today to mistreat in a shameful political stunt.   He’s deployed more guards to bar our World War II heroes from their memorial than he sent to Benghazi when our consulate was under attack.

The President is treating our veterans the same way he treated school kids when he cancelled their White House tours.   When times called for obvious government belt-tightening, he took it out on kids rather than look for anything that would affect him personally.   And while our vets are barricaded from the memorial they built with their heroism, the government 'slim down' won’t affect Obama’s golf game or his family’s White House chefs."

Source: Mrs. Palin's Facebook page

p.s.
47% of Americans that voted in 2008 thought that this woman was qualified (and worthy) to be the Vice President of the United States of America!   A heartbeat away from the presidency!   That alone scares the sh*t out of me!   I just don't get it and I never will!

I'm shutting down!

Members of Congress will have no dilemma about the future of their own finances this week because the 27th Amendment to the Constitution specifically stipulates that the salaries of the House and Senate cannot change until a congressional election has come and gone.   Members of both chambers currently make $174,000.   I don't know about you, but I don't make anything near that!   Let's shutdown congressional pay too!

I think we all need to SHUTDOWN at midnight and see where that takes us!   Ted Cruz gets $174K!   You gotta be kidding me!

A dream of Congress in the future

From CBS's Bob Scheiffer.   Bob...what a great dream!   Transcript here.

Awesome Political Ad!

Carl Sciortino, Jr. is a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.   A graduate of Tufts University, Sciortino is one of seven openly LGBT members of the Massachusetts General Court.   The fact that he is openly gay...adds a really funny and human touch to this "coming out" ad!

Palin...Putin...Putin...Palin

The above is from the Lipsticking Pitbull's Facebook page.

Above: Source unknown.

Jesus Christ is about to return!

Obamacare...They just won't give up!

SARAHPAC: Bomb Obamacare!

You just can't make this sh*t up!

Mr. De Blasio - some demographics!

More interesting details at the New York Times.   He owes his son a big hug!

Four Little Girls...

Addie Mae Collins, 14; Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley; 14, were killed Sept. 15, 1963, in the attack that struck the packed church on a Sunday morning. Twenty-two others were injured.

At a memorial service for the girls, three days after the blast, Martin Luther King Jr., said, “These children — unoffending, innocent, and beautiful — were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.”

911: Never Forget

I will never forget!   I don't think any of us will.

F*ck War!

I couldn't agree more!

Syria...Assad, The Rebels and the US of A!

OK...Assad is gassing his people!

Meanwhile...the Syrian rebels are executing Syrian soldiers!

Dear President Obama,
You know I'm a really big fan of yours!   I love you...but I hate this!

• Is this an International crisis or a civil war?   Sounds like a civil war to me?
• Is Syria an enemy of the U.S?   An ENEMY?
• What threat is there to the United States?
• Why is this America's crusade/issue?
• Is Assad a wacko?   Absolutely!
• Where is NATO on this?   Or the U.N. or all the other coalitions on this?
• The Brits & the Germans said no thanks!
• What is a "strategic strike?"   Please define!
• What is the goal of such a strike?   Get rid of Assad?   Regime change (aka...Democracy)?   No thanks!
• How do we (America) plan to achieve that goal?
• How long will this "strategic strike" last?
• What is the end game AFTER this "strategic strike"?
• How much is it gonna cost?   I've got plenty of other ideas/suggestions on how we can use that money here in America!
• If Boehner, Cantor, McCain and the other Rethuglicans are for this...then I'm against it!   Aren't these the same clowns belly-aching about the deficit?   Like I said...how much is this gonna cost?

I've got an idea...

Help get the innocent refugees out of Syria!   Help (send money) to repatriate those refugees to other countries (ie. Jordan).   Give that approach a year and let all those who remain...kill each other!

This is somewhat similar to my original recommendation for Afghanistan!

Progressive? No! You Flo? Where she be at!

I can't stand this commercial.   Many find it funny.   I don't!   Why?   It conjures up a stereotype of what many in this country perceive to be "typical" black woman with the mannerisms, tone of her voice and much more.   If they had cast a white woman, would she have made the same entrance?   Would Michelle Obama, Oprah, Cecily Tyson and hundreds more black women...including all those I know and are close to me, deliver that message the same way?   No?   If they had cast a white woman, would she have made the same entrance?   No!   Hell no!

Here's another one that really ticks me off!