Hurricane Ike Hits Louisville KY

After leveling the great state of Texas, then barging it’s way through surrounding Louisiana, Hurricane Ike has wreaked more havoc than any other Hurricane to hit land in the United States. On Sunday September 14, the first day of power outage in Louisville, KY, many residents were forced to relive days when electricity and transportation were in the early stages of life. Gas prices rose from $3.60 a gallon to $4.15 a gallon overnight, and the shortage of fuel caused chaos at every station that had power. Cell phone usage was at an all time high, when the system was not jammed and calls could be completed.

Everyone believed that the power would be back shortly as the Category 1 hurricane winds of 75 mph forced past the Louisville International Airport. The local gas and electric company, LG&E, has said it will take as long as 10-14 days of outage before they can restore power to all who were hit. The state governor Steve Beshear has rallied for a reformulated gas pardon good until the 30 of September to bring in gasoline that is not necessarily up to air standards. This would bring relief to the thousands without fuel who continue up and down the streets in search for the last few drops available. Continue reading “Hurricane Ike Hits Louisville KY”

Crafting – 16 Creative Ideas For Repurposing Baby Food Jars Into Crafts

When it comes to frugal crafting, I like to repurpose regular household trash into new craft projects. One of the items I like to use are empty baby food jars. These little jars can be repurposed into many different types of craft projects.

You can paint them or leave them plain. One of my quick and easy ways of decorating them is to just glue 1/4″ wide ribbon around the lids rim and then glue a powder puff or fabric pillow on top. You can accent your powder puff with a satin ribbon bow or leave it plain.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Bath Salt Containers (fill with your favorite homemade bath salts)

2. Bubble Bath and Bath Oils Continue reading “Crafting – 16 Creative Ideas For Repurposing Baby Food Jars Into Crafts”

Beyond Employee Ownership: A Perminent Cure for America’s Boom/Bust Economy

If you work for a company that has an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in place you have the opportunity to buy stock in that company while paying off the loan for your capital assets using future earnings (from dividends instead of your savings account or second mortgaging your home) and with pre-tax dollars (which speeds up the pay-off dramatically). In investment circles this strategy is known as leveraging a buy-out (an LBO for short).

As the result, once the loan is paid off, you’ll have two streams of income, one from your wage or salary, and a second from dividends yielded by your newfound ownership. This either increases your take home pay, or it allows you to accumulate funds for retirement, college for the kids, or to have a rainy-day fund in case the corona virus strikes again. In a well-run employee-owned company average workers often retire with plenty of money in the bank. Continue reading “Beyond Employee Ownership: A Perminent Cure for America’s Boom/Bust Economy”

Disability Claim Denials, Is This the Wrong Time to Be Disabled in America?

14 million Social Security disability applications were denied in a single decade, between 2000 and 2010, while the percentage of denials escalated from 34 percent to 65 percent. Is this the wrong time to be disabled in America?

Note the following headlines:

Federal Disability Traffic Jam The Washington Times

Soldiers risk ruin while awaiting benefit checks Associated Press

Disability Claims can be tough to collect Wall Street Journal

It’s time to stop billions of dollars of disability benefits from being denied, unnecessarily.

Does the Disability Safety Net have holes in it? If more than 60 percent of Social Security disability claims are denied initially, then why are 63 percent approved at the hearing stage? What causes the turn around? Unfortunately 39 percent of claimants give up before determining if they would be successful going through the appeal process!!

Continue reading “Disability Claim Denials, Is This the Wrong Time to Be Disabled in America?”

10 Ways to Improve Family Law Courts

The current model responsible for governing family law courts is extremely outdated and archaic. It is governed by a 1950’s chauvinistic view towards marriage and parentage. Men are expected to be emotionless, robotic-breadwinners whereas women are expected to be keepers of the home and children. Women now work. The economy is in shambles whereas even those who are not burdened with child support or alimony are forced to work two jobs to stay afloat. Below, I have proposed 10 ways to drastically improve fairness in the family law courts which are more reflective of our modern culture and realities present in our economy.

1. Remove presumptions: When a man and woman enter into a courtroom, the presumption is that women are already the custodial parents who deserve child support. The courts should presume that both parents are equally shared in their rights. There should be a presumption of 50/50 shared custody with no mandate of child support payments.

Continue reading “10 Ways to Improve Family Law Courts”

The “Worthy” Poor VS The “Unworthy” Poor

In American Society, we have divided the poor into two classes, the “worthy” poor and the “unworthy” poor. The “worthy” poor are those we feel are worth being on state/federal aid and do not complain about assisting. The “unworthy” poor are those are receive aid as well but for some reason society feels they could take care of themselves and not depend on the aid.

Society feels that those in the “unworthy” class are capable of providing for themselves financially. The reason being that most of the people who fall into this class are younger then the people who fall into the “worthy” class. Many who fall into the “worthy class” are the elderly who are beyond working age, and find it hard to support their selves without some form of a fixed income.

Although the majority of the “worthy” class is made up of the elderly, there are certain situations where the “worthy” class also includes some of a younger generation. Many of those come from the deeply impoverished corners of the United States Society. Many don’t have a chance of surviving and living a better life then they are being given unless the someone, whether it be the government or a small organization, step up and find some way to show them the way to improve themselves. Continue reading “The “Worthy” Poor VS The “Unworthy” Poor”

The Average Cost of The US Divorce

As we all know that divorce brings you to that stage of life where you logically die even-though if you are physically alive. Or in other words divorce is death of a marital relationship. The impact that the reek of divorce brings along with it undeniably destroys one so badly that s/he might take years to get back on feet.

Earlier what we discussed was the emotional cost of divorce that is incurred in shape of death of love and loss of respect, isolation, stress, restlessness, developmental regression, physical deterioration, low self-esteem, absence of trust, cynicism, anger, bitterness, feelings of inadequacy any many more.

“I want to get separated from my spouse”, “we don’t have compatibility” or “we don’t make a good match” are the frequent phrases that we hear from young married couples today. Well, this group of people has set of mind which tells them that by getting divorced they are putting an END to the marital unhappiness and with divorce they can rid the tyranny, oppression and abuse of the spouse. But literally speaking they are simply replacing a set of problem with another especially in cases where minors are involved. You will find them coming out of divorce entirely different and their life will take a counter-turn. Continue reading “The Average Cost of The US Divorce”

The New Employment of America Will Lead Many Into Filing Bankruptcy

Since around 2010, the government has added trillions of dollars to add liquidity to the markets in hopes of some form of economic recovery. The scary thing is, this money was not real money that they have in their coffers but money printed out of thin air in the form of quantitative easing. Most Americans don’t understand what quantitative easing is, but in a nut shell it is nothing more than making up money that is backed by nothing. In essence, it devalues every dollar we earn. The Federal Reserve admits to increasing the money supply by 20 times, so if I have my math right every dollar in my pocket is only worth a nickel now. The media has been beating this drum of a complete recovery when in reality jobs are leaving by the millions. In fact, this actually began back in 2000 when US corporations started moving all of their manufacturing offshore. This is when the US economy became debt driven and nothing more. We are no longer makers of anything, but only consumers and that will only work as long as they keep printing money to give to the banks to loan it to the consumers. Continue reading “The New Employment of America Will Lead Many Into Filing Bankruptcy”

A Look at Teen Parenting Statistics

Teen parenting statistics will show that teen parenting is still a rising occurrence in today’s society despite widely available sex education and numerous birth control methods. Teen parenting statistics also indicate that teenage parents and their child are both at a disadvantage in terms of health, education, and finances.

Teenage mothers face higher health risks than mothers at an older age. Such heath risks include anemia, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, underweight birth, premature delivery, and even death. Majority of these risks result from the fact that most teenage mothers lack prenatal care and not because of immature physical development. According to teenage parenting statistics, about forty percent of teenage mothers did not receive quality or adequate care during pregnancy, resulting in their children born with poor health.

In terms of education, teen parenting statistics show that while it has become socially accepted for teenage mothers to stay in school, unfortunately, an alarming 80 percent of them either choose or feel the need to drop out and only fifty percent of teenage parents who had their first child during the early teenage years will finish high school before they reach thirty. Additionally, teen parenting statistics indicate that it is more likely for someone who has had a child between twenty to twenty four years old to finish college than someone who becomes a parent before the age of nineteen. Continue reading “A Look at Teen Parenting Statistics”

Imagine a Private Sector, Free Market Economy That Guarantees Enough Predictable Income,,,

Imagine, if you can, a private sector oriented, free market economy which is designed to systematically guarantee that every American citizen, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, has ENOUGH PREDICTABLE INCOME to pay for decent food, shelter, clothing, education, basic transportation, and yes, health care. In other words, imagine, if you can, a free market economic system that’s specifically designed to produce…
• No homelessness
• No people living in cockroach and rat-infested slums or ghettos
• No single moms having to choose between raising their kids and feeding them
• No wage slaves working on corporate plantations for exploitative corporate dictators
• No old folks eating dog food in order to pay for their meds
• No systematically induced anxiety and stress due to financial instability
• No militarized cops trying to control angry mobs
• No cyclical recessions or depressions, bankruptcies or home foreclosures
• No need to escape inhumane living conditions through booze, drugs, and mental illness
• No debt created whether consumer debt or governmental debt
• People who are actually free to fulfill their individual potentials, whatever they may be
• And in the long run, no need for social safety nets (i.e. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) because everyone has ENOUGH PREDICTABLE INCOME to pay their bills! Continue reading “Imagine a Private Sector, Free Market Economy That Guarantees Enough Predictable Income,,,”