Category Archives: Money

“The Obamacare Bait And Switch”: America’s Beloved Health Insurance Industry Demonstrates Why We Needed Reform All Along

Note from Mikey —

Regular readers here know how much I enjoy getting to the reality underneath the smoke and bs of news stories. This writer, a health care provider, is also a great “deconstruction worker”.

mykeystrokes.com

So here’s my advice: If you’re somebody who’s smoking hot about the Big Lie of the Affordable Care Act — you know, how President Obama told everybody that if they liked their current health insurance policy they could keep it — do yourself a favor. Avoid the county fair midway.

Because if you go, you’re apt to encounter a quick-handed scoundrel running a shell game, and that boy will take your money. Doubtless Obama should have said almosteverybody could keep their current plan, or that 95 percent could, but he apparently found that too, um, subtle for the campaign trail.

So now old Mitt “47-percent” Romney gets to call him a liar.

But while your attention’s fixed on the president’s “mendacity,” and “paternalism,” to quote one characteristically overwrought scribe, America’s beloved health insurance industry is demonstrating exactly why we needed reform all along. Certain companies are taking advantage of…

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The Micro and Macro of Spending

Sequester

The day after my birthday was my afternoon off.  Mary and I were together, enjoying each other’s company and trying to make responsible spending decisions. Continue reading

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I Want a Revolution Like This One

IceRev

Historically speaking, most political revolutions do not end well.  They create violent, bloody counter-revolutions in reaction.  The American Revolution (1775-1783) was highly unusual.  We didn’t have a counter-revolution.  There are other kinds of revolutions too, revolutions in ideas. Continue reading

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Black Pepper Friday?

The region of the United States I used to be from is well known for setting trends.  Folks there are the pioneers of all sorts of innovations, good and bad.  A couple of holiday seasons back, prospective customers in Palm Springs were shooting each other over the availability of some price-reduced TVs.  I’m glad to say that sort of dangerous behavior has evolved and improved since. Continue reading

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Turning Into Patrick McGoohan

I’m irritated at not being able to complete posts I begin because “real life” intervenes, so I’m just going to write this one in real time, despite interruptions. Continue reading

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Filed under Emotions, Money, photos, Thinking about thinking

Life Stats

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Continue reading

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They Aren’t Your Friends

Oh, how I despise uninvited attempts to sell me things!  If I decide for myself that I need an item or a service, I go shopping for it either in person or online.  Under that circumstance, if I come to your store I’m glad for your help in clarifying my choice of purchase.  If you try to create a fake friendship out of our transaction it won’t work. Continue reading

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“If You’re So Smart…

…why aren’t you rich?”

That’s what they used to say to me back in the Midwest, in response to my being an insufferable know-it-all.  I am a more sufferable know-it-all these days, so I am rarely asked this question, which is disappointing since I now have many good answers for it. Continue reading

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I Hated It, and I’m Right

What do you mean you don’t think this is great acting? I’m not moving, not blinking and I’m speaking brilliant sarcasm as fast as humanly possible. Continue reading

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Filed under Acting, bad movies, Cinema, humor, Money, Technology

Caged

The warehouse of unopened boxes in Citizen Kane (1941).

I’ve been thinking about a kind of imprisonment many of us struggle against – the cage of material possessions. Continue reading

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Filed under Emotions, Ethics and Morality, forgiveness, Money, photos, Self-Esteem, symbolism, Technology, Television, Thinking about thinking

Buh-Bye Motel 2 1/2

We get the keys to our new home today.  Important truths have been re-emphasized in this arduous process, but the lessons are old ones.  I did develop some new skills from living for three weeks in a cabin with no air conditioning and no ordinary source of hot water. Continue reading

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The Bad Art War

Once upon a time we lived next door to a couple who had specific ideas about what should or shouldn’t be done with a garden box. Continue reading

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Filed under Communications, Emotions, Ethics and Morality, humor, Money, Self-Esteem

Carry That Weight

I’m performing without a net.  My wife’s pension documents are still screwed up.  I’m working quick turnarounds, a brutal test of stamina. Continue reading

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Bad Art in the Boonies

There is one restaurant within walking distance of the Motel 2 ½ where we are living.  It’s swimming in bad art. Continue reading

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Filed under humor, Money, symbolism, Travel

Casa Not-So-DeLuxe

Here’s where we are living while Mrs. Invisible and I continue to slog through the required paperwork and await the closing of escrow on Casa DeLuxe.  She worked for a  TV network for 30 years.  They certainly made a big deal out of it if ever she was late turning in a story for broadcast.  Now that obtaining a home and mortgage depends upon processing her pension in a timely fashion, they can’t be bothered to do it properly. Continue reading

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Movies about Work

I don’t usually write list-based posts, but I enjoy reading them so I suppose it can’t hurt to write one every so often.  I learn a lot from books, but over the course of my lifetime it’s usually films that change my mind and make me think about things differently.  Films begin as a very serious form of writing Continue reading

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Dying to Work

In considering my tendency toward overwork combined with the useful responses I received toward how to view that, or change it, I realized something I had not taken into account.  One’s view of the nature and purpose of work varies depending on the age and time of life of whoever’s examining the question. Continue reading

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To The Limit

There have been some alcoholics in my family.  That means I have a genetic capacity for addiction.  However, my drug isn’t alcohol.  It’s workohol. Continue reading

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Top of the Deck

The Real Estate Poker Game So Far

This is C.M. Coolidge’s most famous work of commercial art, “A Friend in Need”, painted just after the turn of the 20th Century.  He painted nine of dogs playing poker Continue reading

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Let’s Make a Deal!

Today’s REAL WORLD Questions

(CUE – ANNOUNCER Voice-Over)

It’s an exciting day for all you fans of competition AND ethics!  You’ve read about Mr. and Mrs. Invisible.  Before we present today’s edition of WHAT WOULD YOU DO? , let’s have a look at what’s happened up to now.  (Roll FILM REEL) Continue reading

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