Money, Cars, My Wife

The following case marks the difference in thinking between my wife and I.

ME I receive a statement from the bank which shows that I only have 3 more payments left to pay off the car that I had purchased

My Reaction  Upon seeing my balance I vow to not allow the bank to get their hooks in me for anything else, any time soon.   I pay off the balance early and wait for the day that they give me my damned title!!! In a few weeks I receive my title and I kiss it.  This is MY CAR now. A few days later I get a check from the bank.  The statement that they gave to me was actually a statement that did not incorporate my previous payment.  They refund to me one month's payment. When the bank and the auto dealership that I purchased from subsequently tell me that: The Bank: I qualify for a loan for a brand new car loan The Car Dealer: They quote me the estimated value of my car and want me to purchase a new one Another Dealer:  The truck that I had paid off 2 years ago is in "high demand" on the used car market.  They have a deal by which I can get a new truck. SHREDDER!!!!! I am not paying anything to anyone. I call the Auto Insurance Company and tell them to knock me down to Liability Coverage Only. No more pickpockets will control me!!

My Wife My wife receives a statement that she has 3 more payments on her car and then asks: "Do you think that I should trade in my car and upgrade to a new model"?

My Response My Thoughts: WTH? My Words: Why don't you use these next few months to apply that money that you had been spending on your car payments and apply it to your savings. Do you want to take over one of the bills that I pay? "NO" "But I do want this dress right here in this catalog for Mother's Day.  Can I get two dresses"? "NO"

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Mars and Venus folks.  :-) 

Health Care - One Of The Few Areas Of Job Growth Will Suffer Cuts As ObamaCare Seeks To Control Costs

Obama’s two jobs problems

The only point of this posting is to say " There Is No Free Lunch".

Economics is one of painful choices.

Obama Administration National Labor Relations Board Tries To Twist The Arm Of Boeing To Build A New Plant In Washington State

Boeing Must Add 787 Line After Union Retaliation, U.S. Says

Stunning.
An American company uses it ECONOMIC FREEDOM to build a brand new $750 Million dollar assembly plant in South Carolina.  The unions are pissed about their decision to build the plant in a "Right To Work State" - desperate for economic development in support of its 'vulnerable people'.  The Obama administration rules that Boeing should add a second shift for its 787 production in WASHINGTON - the government's hand reaching into the board room of a corporation where the union failed to do so.

South Carolina Lawmakers Livid About Ruling On Boeing
NLRB Tries To Block SC Assembly Plant

"Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional U.S. production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region," Luttig said.

Rep. Tim Scott, a first-term North Charleston Republican on the House GOP leadership team, accused President Barack Obama of playing politics to appease his pro-labor allies.

"Such heavy-handed tactics on behalf of the president's union supporters are an affront to the people of the Palmetto State who voted overwhelmingly in support of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing workers the right to secret ballots in union elections," Scott said.

Obama's chief of staff, Bill Daley, was on Boeing's board of directors in October 2009 when it voted unanimously to build the Dreamliner's new final-assembly line at the North Charleston site, a $750 million investment projected to create 3,800 jobs in South Carolina.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/04/20/2238449/nlrb-tries-to-block-boeings-plant.html#ixzz1KCwxkuxv

Cuban Government Hints At Term Limits For Future Political Officials

Cuba's Castro proposes setting limits for public office

After 50 years of unchecked power the Castro brothers have seen the light and believe that term limits are a good thing.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday proposed setting term limits for public office in a country where two brothers have ruled for more than 50 years.
"We have arrived at the conclusion that it is advisable to limit the fundamental political and state offices to a maximum period of two consecutive periods of five years," Castro said at the inauguration of a critical Communist Party meeting.
After his 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro was in power until 2006, when illness forced him to hand the reins over to his younger brother Raul Castro.
Raul Castro was officially elected in 2008.
At the Communist Party Congress -- the first in 14 years -- Castro also said it was time for a "systematic rejuvenation of the whole chain of party and administrative posts," including the president of the party and of the Council of Ministers.

But he also said Cuba's leadership had failed to prepare a younger generation to take over, leaving them without "a reserve of substitutes who were adequately prepared."

More Bodies Found In Mexican Mass Grave

More Bodies Found In Mass Grave In Mexico

Mexico City (CNN) -- Thirteen more bodies of men have been uncovered from a series of mass graves in northeastern Mexico, bringing the total to 72, officials in Tamaulipas state said Friday.
Eight mass graves were found near the town of San Fernando on Wednesday, and two more had been found by Friday, according to the Tamaulipas secretary of state. All the bodies appear to be those of Mexican nationals.
Authorities found the graves during an investigation into a report of the kidnapping of passengers from a bus in late March. The investigation led them to San Fernando, the same place where in August of last year, the bodies of 72 immigrants were found at a ranch.
This time, authorities arrested 11 suspects and rescued five hostages, the state attorney general's office said.
Forensic investigators will examine the bodies in an attempt to identify them and to see if they are the missing bus passengers.
Tamaulipas Gov. Egidio Torre Cantu has condemned the violence, saying he would work with federal authorities to find and punish those responsible.
"These reprehensible acts underline the cowardice and the total lack of scruples of the criminal organizations, which generate violence in our country, and especially in the state of Tamaulipas," the office of Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in a statement.
Amnesty International also called on Mexico to fully investigate, and it criticized the country's efforts to protect its citizens and migrants passing through.

Gas Prices In 'Firing Range' Of All-Time High

CNN: Gas Prices In 'Firing Range' Of All-Time High

Here are the average prices in some other cities:
-- Chicago - $4.11
-- Seattle - $3.85
-- Boston - $3.71
-- Houston - $3.67
-- Atlanta - $3.61
-- Memphis, Tennessee - $3.56

-- Denver - $3.49

Socialists & The Bombing Of Libya - It Was So Much Easier To Call Bush A Warmongerer

From The Solidarity web site

For socialists and for antiwar forces, the events in Libya have presented – and continue to present – agonizing political and ethical choices. It is entirely logical and inevitable that thoughtful activists find themselves in disagreement among each other, and indeed in internal conflict within themselves, over questions raised by the Libyan popular uprising and by the military intervention of the western powers. Recognizing the difficulties of the situation is the essential first step for the international left to work through them.

................


espite whatever disagreements may exist within the international left and antiwar forces, we must remain unified in our unqualified opposition to the imperialist wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, our support for the struggles of the Palestinian people, and in our support for the democratic Arab Uprising -- which is bringing new hopes for political freedom and social justice for tens of millions of people whose basic rights have counted for nothing in the world powers’ cynical games of oil and geopolitics.