The problem with the misnamed Affordable Health Care Act.

          Seems that everyone is talking about yesterdays SCOTUS decision on the affordable health care act.  Guess that means that I need to weigh in as well.  Let's clear something up first.  The first thing I need to tell you is that , for the most part, I agree with what is in the act.  What I don't agree with is the mandate that everyone have health insurance, the misnaming, and the lack of protection from the insurance companies.  These all go hand in hand so I will start with the most basic problem, the name.
           This act does nothing to affect the cost of health care.  Why do I say this?  Firstly, it does nothing to address the issue of health care costs.  The bill deals almost exclusively with health insurance and provision of care.  In otherwords, who pays for the health care.  Either insurance companies, the states, or the federal government.  The same as it was before.  This has no effect on the cost of health care.  At best, the name should be the health insurance reform act.
           Now for the meat of the problem, the mandate.  The supreme court ruled that there will be a fine for those who don't have health insurance.  The first thing you need to realize is when this fine is levied.  It isn't on your tax form or by the policeman pulling you over, it is levied when you visit a doctor without health insurance.  This means that you still visited the doctor without health insurance and have to pay that bill and now you have an additional fine on top of it.  So lets figure out who wouldn't have health insurance. 
           When it comes to health insurance, There are several categories.  There are those that can afford it and pay for it.  Those that can afford it, think they are healthy enough not to need it and thus don't buy it (a minority).  Those that can't afford it and qualify for state or federal health care (Va, Medicare, etc.) and are on it.  Then there is the last 2 categories.  These two are the ones hurt most by this bill.  The first category is those that can't afford health insurance but aren't poor enough to get government health care.  Then there are those that have been denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions.
             Let's talk about those with pre-existing conditions and how this bill does nothing to help them.  While it is true that health insurance companies cannot deny coverage to someone with preexisting conditions, there is no provision to make that affordable.  We are talking about private comanies here.  They exist to make money, not to care for people.  Everything they do needs to be profitable.  They aren't going to offer insurance at reasonable rates for everyone if it affects their bottom line.  Here is what I see happening.  A person with a pre-existing condition applies for health insurance and the company, because they have to offer insurance, quotes them an annual rate that will cover their costs and then some (for profit, remember).  Now, the applicant can't afford the coverage and thus declines it.  The insurance company complied with the law and offered to cover you, you chose to decline it adn thus it is your fault you aren't insured.  Nowhere in this law is that prevented. 
             As for those who couldn't afford health insurance already, once again, there is no provision to make it affordable or get them on government programs.  All we've done is make criminals out of people who are just trying to survive and increase the profits of a bunch of health insurance companies.
             The idea that your health insurance will go down as a result of this law is highly laughable.  The reason is simple.  These companies are making huge profits on those who are already paying, they aren't going to jeopardize them for this law.  They will make up the costs in whatever way they can.  This means by raising rates for those of us that are healthy should their lawyers advise them to insure the previously uninsurable.  What motivation do they have to lower rates?  To be nice?  They're trying to make profits.  If they can increase rates to increase profits they will.  At some point someone is going to mention auto insurance, so I will address that right now.  Yes, there are a ton of auto inurance companies out there and they all claim to save money.  The fact is, auto insurance rates have gone up signaificantly over the years at a rate higher than inflation.  But yours has gone down?  Has your driving record improved?  Did you get older?  If you compare apples to apples, auto insurance has gone up, not down.  Sure people are always saving according to the commercials, but what they don't tell you is that people don't switch unless they are going to save money or their insurance dropped them (in which case, they usually don't save money).  The reason these people save money is because, for the most part, they haven't reviewed there policy in years and were getting charged at the rate they started in which didn't reflect there current status (good driving, accident free, getting older, etc.).  Health insurance will be no different.  Why should it be?  They both are working for profit.
           Now for the solution.  In order to make health care affordable, there has to be a baseline alternative.  Something everyone can afford and sets a bar that the health insurance companies need to meet.  The only way to do this is through a government offered insurance plan.  The way that would work of there is an allowable deduction for health care.  If you take the deduction, you are saying you have purchased health insurance from a private company.  If you opt to not take the deduction, you are enrolled in the government health insurance which is a basic insurance (regular preventative medicine, emergency care, etc.) for one year (your next tax return).  Then, if you go to the doctor and you don't have health insurance, instead of a fine, you get and IRS audit, are investigated for tax fraud/evasion, and face jail time.  This would increase tax revenues, make health insurance affordable for all, and allow freedom of choice of providers.
            Let's go back to the point I made about the unisured visiting hte hospital.  Under this bill, a fine is levied if you visit a doctor, for any reason, without insurance.  Those that are currently visiting doctors wihtout insurance usually do so via the emergency room.  This wouldn't change.  Those without insurance would visit the ER and then have a fine to pay ontop of an ER bill.  As I mentioned before, the primary group that does not have insurance are those that can't afford it.  If they can't afford health insurance, what makes the politicians think they will pay for an ER visit and a fine.  They would already ignore the bill from the ER so what is ignoring a fine.  Health care costs stay the same and insurance goes up.  We all lose.
         This is my opinion and I take responsability for it.  If you can dispute any of this, I welcome it.  I love being proven wrong.  OK, I don't love it, I do accept it though and learn from it. 
          Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

What was I typing? Or ahfalswgljkhdsa

           I've been told that I am weird.  My response is always the same.  What's your point?  I know it, my family knows it, my friends know it, and now you do to.  Actually, anyone who has read any post of mine knows it.  I have a tendancy to overstate stuff, go off the deep end, and just plain ramble.  I can't help it, it just happens.  I'll start typing and the words just flow out.  Sometimes they make sense and others, well, not so much.  What it all comes down to is the simple filling of white space.  Sometimes that is all my blog is.  I fill the white space on the screen with words and sometimes coherent thought (although that tends to happen less often than I would like).
          As you've probably guessed by now, today's post isn't really about anything.  Thoday is one of those random thoughts days.  The kind of day where even I don't fully understand the point of the post or even what I am going to type next.  My philosophy is to just go with it and see what happens.  Kind of like taking a shotgun target shooting.  You save time by tearing up targets with fewer shots than someone with, say,a .22.  Not to mention the boom is slightly more satisfying.  But I digress, then again, I really haven't had a point from the begining, which I guess is the point so I have been on point and I am confusing myself.
         Wow, just wow.  If you can figure out where I am going with this, please leave it in the comments because I am lost.  I think that since I have lost control of this post in a major way, I will stop writing before it gets any more out of hand.  Let me leave you with a final thought (or a first one depending on how you read the post).  Not all is as it seems.  What?  You were expecting something deep and witty?  Did you not read the rest of the post?  Sorry, I didn't mean to fail to live up to your expectations. 
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Another answer: What does God mean to me.

           I am stuck again.  I really have no idea what to write today.  I started to write a few things but they degraded into useless rants filled with supposition and unfounded opinion, which is something I just can't support.  So I think for today, I will post another answer for my sons.  Yes, I know, I'm taking the easy way out.  But my head hurts and I can't think straight for some wierd reason.  Anyway, Here it is.

5-1          What does God mean to you?

God means, for lack of a better word, everything.  He is a comfort when I am hurt, a guiding light when I am lost, and a friend when I am alone.  He is a ready ear when news is good, a breath of life when all is said and done.  He is always ready to listen and willing to forgive even when we think we are beyond forgiveness.  He is hope in the deepest canyon, light in the darkest night, and strength when I am weakest.  He is the first one we should turn to when we have, well, anything.  We should thank him when things are good, ask for his help when things are not so good, and trust in his guidance.

Sure, some of this sounds as though I am just spouting what is taught in church and in various devotionals, but it doesn’t make it any less true.  Granted, I sometimes lose sight of this and who it is we stand for, but he always welcomes me back.  When he forgives me, he lets it go and chooses to ignore it.  He guides me when I need it, sometimes with a gentle nudge and other times with a not so gentle beat down, but never more than I need or can handle.  He allows me the freedom to choose what path I take, but still keeps me in his hands.  He cares for me and all I do and knows me better than I know myself.

God is the only one I love more than my wife.  He is first in all I do, and when he isn’t, due to my selfish (human) nature, he waits patiently for my return.  And I do return, I can’t help it, I am addicted to him.  He draws me in and feeds me with his presence.   There are times when I forget to fill myself on his presence and it is noticeable.  I become irritable and hard to be around.  I am selfish and want only what I want.  And it isn’t long before I ache for him to refill me. 

I am his and he is mine.  He gave me more than I could ever repay.  I could go on and on, but there are some things you just have to discover for yourself.  God’s awe inspiring presence is one of those things.

What does God mean to me?  Love, Forgiveness, Grace, Mercy, and Peace, above all, peace that’s what God means to me.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

An Apology, a solution, and a loving wife.

          After rereading yesterday's post, I realize that I owe a huge apology to my wife.  I allowed anger to cloud my judgement on what I posted and it was wrong.  The way I posted it makes it sound as though my wife is evil, coniving and self centered.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The disagreement we had was based solely on mutual misunderstanding and was solved to both of our satisfaction.  We have since made up and have moved on (at least until my wife reads yesterdays post and I have to apologize all over again, which I will do when I get home).  I made a mistake and will deal with it when I get home.  It should also be noted here, that as of this post, my wife has not read yesterday's post and thus may not know of what was written.  Thus this apology is not prompted by arguements or otherwise.  I am sorry, dear, I will speak to you on this when I get home.
           I was going to add on to this post a seperate commentary on an unrelated matter, but realized it would muddy the waters and possibly dilute the first part.  So I will end today's post with this.  Men, just because you feel wronged (even if you weren't) is no erason to air it publicly.  In a loving relationship, who is right has no bearing on the outcome.  Solutions are the goal of every conversation (and argument) between you and your wife.  It doesn't matter who was right (and, by proxy, who was wrong) only that you solve your problems and move forward.  To dwell on the mistakes of others is to live with the results and mess of those mistakes rather than to correct them.  The longer you point fingers, the longer it takes to find a solution and move on.  I could keep spouting cliches, but you get the picture.  I didn't until last night.  Thank you to my lovely wife for pointing me in the right direction (again). 
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The art of being right.

           Let me begin by apologizing for not posting last week.  I got shifted to swing shift on short notice Monday and was not up to posting.  This means I need to catch you up on what happened last week.  It began with the Septic guys showing up to finish the job.  Some time the preceding Friday, the inspector showed up and okayed it.  Tuesday and Wednesday were spent removing the rocks, trash, and clumps of old grass from the dirt in preparation for seeding.  Thursday, we actually seeded the lawn.  Now we just have to wait for it to grow.  Luckily we have spare seed if we need it.
           The fun didn't really start until Friday night.  First I need to give you the lead up.  About a week or so ago, my mother in law (great woman, not a battle axe, but a wonderful woman) called and asked if it would be OK to come out in July.  She also wanted to bring out our neice with her.  We said sure, we really don't have much planned for July.  So Friday night we get a call and she says, would Monday be OK.  The wife says sure.  If you note, it is Monday, most definitely not July, and, yes, she is arriving this morning, 15 year old Niece in tow.  I should point out here that she is welcome and we are glad to have her.  I have no problem with her visiting on short notice.  The problem I had was with my wife.  We have discussed it and we have since come to a reasonable solution (I am wrong, she is right and that is that, at least that was how it ended). 
               You see, about 4 weeks ago, I volunteered to help out at my church's fireworks stand.  We discussed what times would be best and settled on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon as that was what worked around our schedules.  She also had a dinner with friends scheduled for Saturday evening.  The problem came when I reminded her of our prior commitments for this weekend as she started trying to plan things to do with her mom that the conflict arose.  Apparantly, she was against the times I scheduled from the beginning and I chose those times on my own.  Thus, it is my fault that she can't plan a great weekend with her mom.  Apparantly, I should have known that she was against me working those days even when she agreed to them and scheduled my time volunteering for during the week.  Thankfully we got it worked out that I was wrong so we can move on.
           Quick note, men, if you end an argument with your wife and you were right, you may want to check back and make sure you actually have a bed to sleep in.  I'm not saying women are vindictive and always right because that would get me in trouble.  I am just warning you that if your wife ever tells you you are right, you had better make sure that you are in fact right and that whatever it is you are right about is not something that will come back to haunt you.  Just saying.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Why cut the pay for those that work and not those that don't?

           So I missed yesterday's post because I got sent home to deal with my Septic system.  Turns out, I shouldn't have worried.  Hopefully it happens today.  Unfortunately, I have duty so I will not be able to be there and my wife will have to take care of it.  She worries about it, but I think she will do fine.
            As I was looking at various things, I came to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with politicians.  How else do you explain the idea that in order to save money, you cut pay and wages from working people (military, federal workers, etc) in order to maintain pay to those not working (welfare, jobless benefits, etc.)  Don't get me wrong, I think that these programs are necessary to a point, but to justify cutting pay from those who work and not to those that don't at the same time is ludicrous.  We cut jobs for the sake of savings only to have those whose jobs we cut end up on unemployment and other costly programs as they search for jobs to replace the job we cut to save money.
            Now comes the fun part.  I was always taught that if you don't have a solution or aren't willing to discuss one, don't bring up the problem.  So here goes.  I say put the people on welfare to work.  Set up day care that is open only to those on welfare and staff it with those on welfare.  Next, put those who now have free time to work in jobs appropriate to their physical abilities.  If they don't know how to do the job, they get trained.  If they don't want to work, they don't get welfare.  I can hear some of you saying, "what about those who are disabled?"  I didn't say anything about those on disability, I said welfare.  But they can work too.  There are phones that need answered, data that needs inputted, etc.  There are jobs out there for all disability levels.  Just as there are jobs out there for all ability levels.  Streets need cleaned, ditches need dug, parks need mowed.  Fences need built.  Fences need painting.  Trees need planting.  I could go on and on.  But we continually complain about those on welfare and the job market.  But no one wants to do the jobs that are available, either because the job is not at their particular "skill level" or because it doesn't pay as well.  I think that if you gave people a choice of working for their welfare and unemployment checks on these needed government jobs that they would either work or get off of welfare. 
              The other side of this is that the work we are either not doing or contracting out at exhorbant rates would get done rather cheaply.  One other thing to throw out there.  Because they are working and may actually want to better themselves, you put into place a policy that gives them the freedom to job hunt while doing the work.  What I mean is, you give them the flexibility of schedule that allows them to better themselves.  If they want, you give them the option of going to school on the governments dime with the agreement that they will stop getting welfare in 5 years.  This gives them the time to get a degree and another year for the following job search.  Once they sign up and take money, there is no turning back.  They are off of welfare regardless of whether they finished school or not.  Of course this means we supply tutoring, but in the long run, it saves us a ton of money.
             This is all my opinion and you can take it however you want, but we have a problem here in the US and it is a selfish problem.  No one wants to take responsibility for themselves.  Everyone wants the government to provide for their comfort.  And it does, as long as you are willing to claim that you can't do anything else and throw everything away and start over.  Do that and you will find that you can live pretty well on the government dime.  Especially if you combine programs properly.  If you give something to someone for Free without any end in sight, you find that there is no reason for them to take a risk and get off of it.
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Lost my mind, please return if found

            Things are so off for me right now, that I have no clue what to write.  It isn't as if there is a lot going on, just that I have no idea what actually is happening.  Take the septic work, for instance.  The system is installed but it hasn't been inspected.  The inspection could happen today, tomorrow, or maybe next week.  Then they have to finish filling in the holes, level the ground and get their machinery out of the way.  It is definitely, possibly getting done this week.  Maybe.  In other words, sometime this month...hopefully.
            As you can tell, I am not exactly centered today.  My mind is trying to go several different directions and I am not even sure where a few of them lead.  All I know is that it isn't helping me write this.  If I were to hold down the period key each time my mind wondered, this post would be several pages by now.  The really sad part is, I have no idea where it wanders off to.  All I know is that I stare at the screen for a minute with nothing going on and then I can continue to write.  I think that this means that I need to stop writing today's post so that I can stare off without the pressure of trying to figure out where I was just at. 
             By the way, if you see my mind out and about with out its body, or vice versa for that matter, please send them home, I would appreciate it.
            Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The dirt on the backyard dig

              I am a bit frustrated right now.  The guys doing the septic system told me Friday that they would have the inspection and finish up yesterday.  My wife even asked them what time the inspector was going to be there when they showed up in the morning.  The told her sometime in the afternoon.  I told my boss and got the afternoon off so I could be there for the inspection, just in case.  As you may have guessed from the way this post is going, they didn't finish and the inspection didn't happen.  The real kicker is, from my experience with my dad, I fully understand why they are where they are.  I can't fault them for anything they have done or where they are in the work.  I've been there.  Digging large holes in the rain isn't fun, nor is it something you do if you can avoid it, especially with heavy machinery.  You also don't just dig randomly, you have to plan it out and make sure what you plan works before you start or you find yourself digging a lot larger hole than you need and you have that much more dirt to move.  So, I can't fault them for their progress.  In fact, I actually find that they are quite efficient and do well.  They are just working in a tight space with little room for error and it makes it that much harder.  I guess I am more frustrated at the fact that I have been taking half days off for no reason and I can see I am frustrating my boss.  I'll get through it though.
            How bout you, have you ever had something take longer than expected or planned?  Were you able to justify the added time and were still frustrated by it?  It is natural, when things don't go according to plan, to get frustrated.  It is how we deal with it and others involved that we show our true nature.  Do you rage against the situation or do you calmly nod in understanding?  Do you stew and growl or do you smile and let it go?  Patience is not easy, but it is something that is important.  Try it, you will be amazed at the results.
          Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

My biggest mistake.

              What a great weekend.  We have a new septic tank, we are now just waiting on the drain field.  That should finish up this afternoon and then we have to reseed the yard.  Saturday, we got to spend some family time on a much needed family outing on a bike ride.  Then we got to spend Sunday afternoon with friends playing games and sharing our lives.  What a great week end.  Of course Monday follows that, but that can't be helped.
              I can't help but feel rejuvenated after all that.  Even though I was spent after the bike ride, I felt great.  There was a smile on the entire family's faces even though you could see they were tired (at least the adults, the kids wanted to go again).  We thoroughly enjoyed it.
             I love being able to spend time with my sons and time near them is time well spent.  That being said, I think that for the rest of today's post I will share another excerpt from my answers for my sons.  This one is particularly close to home.

10-3 What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made?  What can I learn from it?

I think of so many mistakes I’ve made when I am asked this question that it is almost impossible to answer.  I will give it my best though.  First, allow me to clarify something.  To me, a mistake is an error in judgment or a decision made based on faulty information.  It is not an intentional action nor is it something you plan.  While it would be wrong to rob a bank and a horrible decision, it is not a mistake, it is a choice. 

So, looking at it from that point of view, I believe my biggest mistake was my choice of friends growing up.  You see, I had some of the information and, while it was my choice to be their friend, I erred in my judgment as far as what my will power was.  My friends growing up were diverse and I had two sets.  The first set is not the mistake.  They were my friends from church.  They were Christians and as far as I can tell, they lived it.  No, my mistake was the second set.  They were my friends from school and around home.  They were the ones I chose to hang out with the most.  There is that word again, chose.  My mistake wasn’t choosing to hang out with them, or even to be their friend, no, my mistake was to believe that I was strong enough by myself to resist their ungodly influence.  You see, not one of my friends from school were Christians.  They didn’t even pretend to be good.  Still, I thought I could be strong enough to resist the temptation on my own.  Boy was I wrong.

By the time I had graduated from high school, you couldn’t tell a difference between the way I acted and how my friends from school acted.  I allowed myself to be led astray and to go down a path I still regret to this day.  Because of that mistake, I walked in sin for nearly 20 years.  I told coarse jokes, made fun of others, thought only of me and my pleasure.  I refused to acknowledge God and what he wanted of me.  In my selfishness, I blamed others for my failures and felt cheated when I didn’t get my way.  I tried to live by the rules I had learned in church growing up, at least when I wanted to convince others I was good.  I pretended to be a Christian when I was home to make my father happy, but I was no longer following Christ.  It all came back to the mistake of thinking I could do it on my own, to thinking that I could be friends with ungodly people the way they wanted to be friends, without falling into their lifestyle.  While it was a bad decision to be their friend and to continue in that relationship, it was a decision, not a mistake.  We need to be clear on that.  Bad decisions are not mistakes, they are bad decisions.

What can you learn from all this?  Simply put, trust in God.  Can you have non Christian friends?  Certainly, and you should.  You must, however, be on guard at all times and realize that without God and Christian friends, it is all too easy to fall away from God and into the ungodly lifestyle of your non Christian friends.   You must also be wary of the relationship with them.  A non Christian friend should never be your first source of advice concerning, well, anything.  This is because their advice, while it may sound good, is based on worldly teachings and not on what God says.  Sure, some of their advice may even be exactly what God says, but if you rely on their advice, you will find that God has no part in your life and you will regret it.  I know I do.  You must also never let their opinion of you be a reason to do something.  God’s opinion is all that matters and an ungodly friend does not know or even hear God’s opinion.

This may seem to be a bit harsh.  It may even sound like I am against having ungodly friends.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Even God encourages you to have friends among non Christians.  Read Luke 5:29-32: “29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. ³⁰ And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’
³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”

Jesus sat with the worst of the society with reason.  The key is to remain rooted in your belief and to not allow them to sway you.  You should also note that, while he sat with them, he did not count them as close friends, that privilege was reserved for his disciples, those who had already committed their lives to him.

In closing, the biggest mistake I ever made was not trusting God over my friends on earth.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Keep your eyes on him and you won’t go wrong.

           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The games we play (and lose)

                Apparently I am luckier than I thought.  What brings this up?  I beat my wife at Catan again yesterday (sorry dear, but I have to share).  It wasn't the first time, in fact, my wife claims it has been ages since she won.  Looking at how we play, the strategies we use, and all the nuances that go into it, we can't find any fault in how she played.  In fact, we both agree that she couldn't have chosen a better lay out or done anything different.  This means that it has to be down to how the dice rolls come up.  In other words, I win because the dice roll in my favor more often.  I can't control it, yet here I am with my wife upset at me because she I beat her again.  Oh, and we can no longer play Catan one on one.
              This brings to mind a few other things.  You see, I grew up in a home that loved playing games.  One of my earliest memories of my mother was sitting with her playing a board game.  When I was able to add and multiply, my dad taught me cribbage (I lost for years before I finally beat him).  As I grew up the games left the random chance heavy realm and went towards strategy.  I still haven't beaten my dad at Monopoly. 
               This was highlighted when I went home for my grandmother's funeral.  For the first time in almost 10 years, all my siblings and I sat down with my dad and played hearts.  By the time my dad arrived, us kids had already played 2 warm up games to shake off any rust that may have accumulated and we thought we were ready to take on the old man.  We were wrong.  At the end of the game the it was obvious us kids were playing for second best.  The scores?  My younger brother lost with a score of 108, my older sister got 96, I got 89, and my younger sister got 78.  Dad?  He won with a score of 6.  No, I didn't mistype it.  That is supposed to be a single digit.  Dad didn't just win, he schooled us.  What made it worse was the fact that he said very little in regards to the game.  Most of what we talked about with him was just catching up chit chat.  He didn't talk about how badly he was beating us.  He didn't tell us we couldn't make him take anything.  He just quietly sat there and gave us kids every heart he could.  Yup, I am glad I don't play poker with my dad.
             How about you?  Is there a family game that your mom or dad have always won?  A game that is a must when you are together?  Or maybe there is another tradition that, while not an official competition, has been elevated to the level of professional sports (I have seen a father and son compete at camping, it wasn't pretty, the winner had to sleep on the side of a mountain for a week in subzero temps).  These competitions can be healthy if done right (the camping thing, maybe not so much).  They are opportunities to connect with family and regain the awe you once had of your parents or to show them just how much you've grown.  Engage with your parents in the old games you used to play and have a bit of conversation at the same time.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The pay gap that isn't

              As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a couple days.  There is one good reason and one bad reason for this.  The bad reason is that, on Tuesday, I didn't feel like it.  It wasn't anything in particular, I just didn't have anything constructive to say so I chose not to post.  In retrospect I should have posted another answer that I gave my sons as I have done in the past, but I failed.  The good reason is that, yesterday, the guys came to put in my septic tank so I was involved in that all day.  Which turned out to be a bit of a waste as the only thing they got done was removing my old oil tank.  That was a bit angering, We replaced the tank based on information that it was leaking because sediment was found in the oil filter during servicing.  When the tank was pulled, it looked good.  In fact, it still had oil in it and didn't leak.  talk about a bummer.  Oh well, one less thing to mow around.
                Now for today's post.  There is a piece of legislation going around that the Democrats would have us believe is part of the Republican's war on women.  You may have heard of it, it is the pay equality act, or something similar.  It is supposed to ensure women get equal pay.  This is a piece of useless legislation at best and downright political maneuvering in any other case.  Why?  First off, let's get the idea that I am against equal pay for women out of the way.  I am not.  I have always been a big supporter of equal pay for equal work.  It is right and what is fair and I won't deny it. 
                 Now on to why this is a piece of legislation that makes no sense.  I would like someone to show me a job that women get paid less for doing the same work as their male counter parts.  I couldn't find one.  I found stats showing that over all women got paid less than men, on average, across the US, including all jobs.  But when you delve into it the average used is done wrong.  First off it includes all jobs including ones that are typically avoided by women, such as construction, deep sea fishing, window cleaning (I am kidding there), and other high risk jobs.  I am not saying that women don't or can't do them, I am saying they are typically avoided by women.  Secondly, the average does not take into account for longevity.  This is a major factor in a lot of jobs.  For instance, until recently, the majority of CEO's were men.  This wasn't because of sexism as feminists would have you believe, but because the position of CEO is typically filled by someone that has a track record of efficient leadership.  This can only be achieved through experience and time.  In other words, in order for there to be women as CEO's there have to have been women as VP's and on down the line.  Of course there is going to be a disparity here since men have been in the work place longer.  Factor in the fact that a lot of women leave the work place to have a family and that those that stay are outnumbered as they move up the ladder and you can see why this may be.
              Now for the real shocker.  For the most part (professional sports excluded), women get paid as much, or more than their male counter parts.  This is from data that compares job to job.  It took an average of all men and women working in the same area in the same jobs during the same time frames.  Which makes sense as it is comparing the same things.  Think about it, if you compared your end of year totals with your coworker and you worked twice as many hours as he did, would you consider it fair if your boss paid him the same amount based on pay equality?  Or what if you went in to work one day and found that the new intern was getting the same pay as you, even though you were a manager, because there is a pay gap.  This is what the act to fix the purported pay gap is trying to do.
                  Overall, it was a piece of legislation that served no purpose, wasted time and money, and was strictly to give the appearance that Republicans hate women.  Oh, did I mention that the bill required added funding in a time when we are trying to make budget cuts?  So the Republicans voted against wasting tax payer money on a bill that served no purpose and they are being castigated for it.  Makes sense to me (please note that the last statement was made with the highest level of sarcasm possible).
                Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Back on days, posting again.

         I am finally back on days.  This means I will be posting again.  A lot has happened in the last month, most of it good.  In fact, I am finding it difficult to name something negative, so I won't.  I think the biggest thing that has occurred is that I now have a mentor in faith and we have decidedly similar thought processes.  This is a blessing and a wonderment.  We get along surprisingly well and last time we got together we talked for almost 2 hours before we knew it.  It was an awesome experience.  I look forward to the next year as we explore our faith.
        Otherwise, things are going well and I am looking forward to going back to a regular schedule.  I really don't have anything that leaps out at me to post about, but I will post again tomorrow and hopefully I will find something interesting to comment on.
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.