Random thoughts from a Baby Boomer
Nest Egg or Next Egg » Posts for tag 'Common Sense'

Terrorism Stops with You and Me

The other day, I received this email titled Advice from an Israeli Agent.  When I read it, I thought this was good common sense and we, as individuals, should take more responsibility for our own personal safety.  Little did I know that the next day these words would trigger me to take action.  The day after reading this email, I was in our little post office and a man walked in with three packages, stood in line for a minute and then set his packages down on the table where I was addressing an envelop.  He asked me if I would watch his packages while he ran back to his car. 

I said, “No, I would rather not.”  He said, “You’re kidding?”  I said, “No, I am very uncomfortable watching your packages and I would appreciate it if you would take them with you.”  He said, “You’re crazy!” left the packages and walked out.  I felt myself start to panic as he left.  I picked up the packages and threw them toward the door.  I figured if I was going to die I was going to take him out too!  The people around me looked at me like I had lost my mind.  The man came back in, saw his packages on the ground and proceeded to call me some very lovely names and wish me dead at the hands of a run-away car. 

He picked up his packages and went storming out before the person in charge at the post office came out to see if she could help.  By this time, I was seriously shaking and I told her what had happened.  She got it.  Of all the people in the post office at that time, she was the only one who understood the impact of a person leaving a package unattended.  I know that everyone who witnessed that scene probably thought that I was over-reacting, but I can’t help wonder “What if?”  There was no bomb (this time) but I was proud of myself for reacting. We think things like that can’t happen in our small towns but no place is really safe anymore.  I am not ashamed of what I did and I would do it again. 

We have to acknowledge the fact that terrorism is a possible threatto all Americans. I am attaching that email in hopes that others read it and if put in a similar situation, have what it takes to react.  We need to show the terrorists that we are not lambs to the slaughter who leave our safety and security up to other people.  We need to show them that every citizen in this country is prepared to take them on.

 

Advice from an Israeli Agent

AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ !! 

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ’Munich’ was based. He was Golda Meir’s bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games. 
In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know — but that our government has not yet shared with us.
He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O’Reilly laughed, and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.
  Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East) to the Bush Administration about 9/11, a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.
  Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.
 

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke — that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective. 
For example: 
1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic. 
2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can’t bring liquids on board. He says he’s waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked!

Every strategy we have is reactionary
3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates. 
Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.
 

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time. The interlands (Wyoming, Montana, etc.). 
The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas. 
Aviv says terrorists won’t need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.
 

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. Government does not want to ‘alarm American citizens’ with the facts. The world is quickly going to become ‘a different place’, and issues like ‘global warming’ and political correctness will become totally irrelevant. 
On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don’t have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to ‘meet their destiny’. 
 

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America  should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad.  But will be, instead, ‘homegrown’, having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for ’students’ who frequently travel back and forth to the  Middle East. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won’t know/understand a thing about them. 
Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face.  America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.
 

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel’s, Ireland’s and England’s hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust ‘aware’ citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, ‘like babies’. Our government thinks we ‘can’t handle the truth’ and are concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake. 
Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!
  In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well ’trained’ that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, ’Unattended Bag!’ The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.
  Unfortunately, America  hasn’t been yet ‘hurt enough’ by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it’s their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.
  Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were ‘lost’ without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City, this was days, in some cases!)
 

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within your family, of how to respond in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the schools too, develop plans of actions, just as they do in Israel. 
Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow. 
Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan, that in the event of another terrorist

attack, EVERYONE’s ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., will immediately be cut-off, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated. 
How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak to each other? You need to have a plan.
  If you understand, and believe what you have just read, then you must feel compelled to send this to every concerned parent, guardian, grandparents, uncles, aunts, whomever. Don’t stop there. In addition to sharing this via e-mail, contact and discuss this information with whomever it makes sense to. Make contingency plans with those you care about. Better that you have plans in place, and never have to use them, then to have no plans in place, and find you needed them.
  If you choose not to share this, or not to have a plan in place, and nothing ever occurs – good for you! However, in the event  something does happen, and even moreso, if it directly affects your loved ones, then this e-mail will haunt you forever.
 
 
 

 

Health Care Reform

Obama and the Democratic-controlled congress have good intentions, but it seems that this administration is no different from the past administration.  In the worst economic crisis in decades, the people in charge of running our country are penny-wise and dollar-dumb.  Despite all the current changes to medicare and the ongoing debate over more cuts to medicare in the proposed health care issue, they are overlooking one critical fact: $30 billion dollars or more of medicare money is lost each year to fraud.  I don’t understand why they are not addressing this issue.  Have we elected leaders that have no concept of the value of our money?   Congress has managed to address all sorts of issues in the 1,000+ pages of the health reform bill; why have they not addressed the issue of fraud to the system? 

We know the excuses:  There’s the time constraint and the lack of people available to trace the fraud. In fact, past-President Clinton recognized the impact fraud had on our national budget and tried to get the then Republican-controlled congress to address this issue.  And yet, over a decade later, nothing has been done.  It insults my American blood to know that con-men are probably laughing at the ignorace of my country all the way to the bank.  Not only does this show the world that our government is wasteful and financially uncaring, but I wonder just how much of this fraudulent money is used to help fund terrorism around the world.  

We need to stop this fiscal leaking before we address spending more money.  Can’t someone come up with a solution?  Wait a minute, I have a solution! The National unemployment rate is over 10% and the the President recently held a summit on creating jobs in America with the focus on not spending more taxpayer money to do it.  Why not hire some of those unemployed people to investigate the medicare fraud.  One very simple solution would be to set up call centers where newly-hired medicare employees could call and verify that medicare recipients actually received the services that were billed to them. If the service was valid, those bills would be paid.  If the services were not valid, then they would not get paid.  This would be a self-funded program; money saved would cover the cost of the centers and the hiring of new workers.  Wahla! no new expense to taxpayers and the respect of this administration and congress would increase a notch or two. In fact, maybe we should look at other areas where there is a huge waste of taxpayer’s money and see how we can put people back to work by recovering these funds. 

I am not opposed to paying more taxes if that is what is needed to make this country healthy, but I am opposed to sitting back and watching my tax dollars be stolen.  Our administration needs to lead by example and show us the meaning of fiscal responsibility.

Who Should I Trust?

 Over the past year, I have watched my investments plummet then make a feeble attempt at recovery, only to nosedive again this past week. The economic news mirrors my concern.  We might be in an economic bubble or we might be on the road to recovery.  Who knows?  Apparently no one can say for sure, despite their educational background or their position of power.  I question whether my IRA will ever be healthy enough for me to retire on.  Then, I tell myself not to worry, retirement is highly over-rated and what would I do with all that time on my hands anyway, especially if I can’t afford the lifestyle I want to become accustomed to.  See?  Even my sense of humor is suffering from this financial burden.

I am not sure who is to be trusted anymore.  I was struck dumb, when I heard that the bank executives who put us in this economic tsunami must be given their million-dollar bonuses or they will go some place else to work. I say, “Let them go!”  These people have proven to the world that they are the epitome of incompetency.  I don’t understand why they kept their jobs in the first place, and I really don’t understand, knowing their history, who would hire them now.  We have finally reached that point where the world has turned upside down, common sense has been abandoned and logic is non-existent.  Hey folks, Nero is back, and Rome is burning.

I’m not one for idly standing by and yet, where my finaces are concerned, I must confess, I have taken the passive road.  I have trusted strangers to turn my hard earned money into a comfortable nest egg.  I hypnotized myself into believing that since the investmenet firm had an old,  established name, it was a safe place to invest.  Silly me.  Over the years I have learned that the only  one who can take care of me the way I want to be taken care of, is me.  And if I want to see a safe, secure financial future, than it is up to me to take the necessary action to make it happen.  I have made a commitment to handle my own financial future.  I have enrolled in investment classes and when I am done, I will have the knowledge I need to chart my own path. 

Wish me luck and follow my progress here.

Surprising Info About American Prices

The nightly news is a constant reminder that record numbers of homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and the U.S. economy is losing jobs at an alarming rate with companies big and small slashing their work force.  A half-million American jobs disappeared last month, the worst mass layoffs in more than three decades, as the nation spiraled downward in what could be the hardest hit times since the Great Depression. Compound this with the fact that more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 1998, and the Economic Policy Institute estimates 59 percent-or 1.78 million-of these jobs have been lost due to the explosion in the U.S. manufacturing trade deficit over this same period and it is understandable that you and I don’t believe that little things we do can make much of a difference in this financial crisis.  But on my weekly trip to the store, I had an epiphany and began to think differently. Read more »

A New Year Perspective

As we get ready to ring in the new year yet one more time, set a few minutes aside to view this video and think about the vast sea of humanity that we live in.  It amazes me how fast the world around me continues to change and yet I feel like I am moving in slow motion.  When I was younger, I used to feel bigger than life.  I could take on any challenge (I am woman; hear me roar).  I was the center of the universe and all life revolved around me.  As I grew older, possibly even wiser, I began to move from that center and found myself moving in a new cycle, one that revolved around my children.  As every year passed, I found myself growing farther away as I gave them the space to be independent; and then, finally I reached an orbital path that was close enough to be there if they needed me, but far enough away to encourage them to go off on their own.  I was comfortable orbiting there and wanted it to last forever, but nothing stays the same for long. Read more »

Technomania

NEVER SAY NEVER - Ten years ago, I moved to a very rural northern town.  Isolated from friends and family, my children worried about me, especially driving at night and so they gave me a cell phone for Christmas.  I never wanted a cell phone, and I definitely wasn’t going to get hooked on one,  After all, I had done without one for my first 50 plus years so why would I need one now?  Boy was I off base on that one! My first “mobile” phone was a one piece, black “Nokia” brand phone - it didn’t flip open, had no “sliding feature”, it didn’t offer texting, didn’t have the Internet, it had no camera, no fancy downloadable ring tones –  it was just a newer, smaller, portable version of the simple old ma bell phone I grew up with.  I didn’t have the heart to tell my children that service was iffy at best this far north making reception pour even on clear days; but, I used the rationale that it would be handy to have in case of EMERGENCIES.  So, I threw it in my purse along with the other non-essentials I carry and tried to forget about it.  However, like most rural areas, time eventually  catches up up with us and signal towers began popping up among the trees and along our highways.  My phone began to ring on occasion and the more I talked on it, the more I  grew addicted to this wireless “demon” and soon we became one! It became a semi-permanent attachment to my ear  and it was never far from reach – I learned to drive, shop and walk one-handed! I was content and all was right with the world.  But my coming of age in this techno-phase didn’t end there.  The cell phone industry created new and better, faster, more hi-tech phones that my children felt necessary to bestow upon me.  Alas, I was left in the wireless dust! I was lucky to be able to program in the names and phone numbers of friends and family, but all of a sudden there were more options on my phone: display options, screen saver choices, ring tones, text messaging, etc. - all too overwhelming for a novice such as me. Read more »

Investing 101

 In October, when the stock market did a free for all, Jane Bryant Quinn did the practical thing  She panicked.  I think many of us can identify this past October with that feeling.  Traditional investment planning lulls us into a sense of security and creates an illusion of stability. But nothing happens every year exactly as planned.  We do know that life is uncertain, and that uncertainty for most people especially applies to managing their personal financial affairs. It seems that even during normal economic times, some investors find themselves overwhelmed with information and conflicting advice while others don’t have the time or interest to manage their personal assets and liabilities in a disciplined manner. We create the best investment plan we can with the knowledge we have, set it aside with the faith that we are investing enough money and pat ourselves on the back when those investments grow.  Then when the bears take over on Wall Street, we feel overly anxious because all of a sudden, our financial future is staring us in the face.  What was gently tucked into the recesses of our minds now colors every move we make.  Read more »

Eating Less - Living Longer

The Calorie Restriction Society believes that it is possible to live an extraordinarily long and healthy life, start a different career at age 70 and pursue that new ambition with the same zeal that you had when you were young.  They claim that the geriatric generation can function at a very high performance peak without the significant decline that most experience as they age.  How do they do it you ask? Very simply by taking in fewer calories and maintaining adequate nutrition by replacing calorie dense food with calorie-sparse nutrient dense foods. In theory, this is an interesting concept, but I think my body has become addicted to an occasional sweet and it would retaliate if I deprived it of deserts all together.  And what would I do on those days that I need comfort food?  Would I get the same satisfaction if I turned to a raw carrot for sympathy?  On the serious side, I have read several articles on CR over the years and understand that many people are successfully thriving on this diet, but it still sounds like a controlled form of anorexia to me.  If we noticed a change in eating habits accompanied with weight loss in a grand daughter, we would definitely react, intervene and seek help for her.  I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept that CR is dangerous for young girls and equated with them having an unhealthy body image to being acceptable in older adults who depend on CR to give them longevity and vitality.  They both sound like eating disorders and this seems like an oxymoron. Read more »

Youth Obsession

I just read an article in Yahoo News! which claims that Youthfulness is an American Obsession.  True, according to mass media, It is a common sentiment in a society where many of us strive to look and feel decades younger — to prove to ourselves and the world that we are healthier and more vital than our parents were at our age. We’ve all heard it: 60 is the new 50, the new 40 and so on. The anti-aging industry, aimed at the baby boomers, is a multi-billion dollar business that continues to grow.  Many professionals in mainstream medicine and elsewhere worry that we’re becoming too focused on treatments with short-term benefits that have potentially dangerous side effects and scant, if any, evidence that they’ll help in the long run. In doing so, they wonder if some people are actually jeopardizing their chance at a long, healthy life, both physically and emotionally.  It is true, we are bombarded with infomercials, ads and magazine articles on staying young and vibrant.  But what’s new?  Ever since I thumbed through my first “Seventeen”magazine as a young, impressionable teenage girl, I have been inundated with products, diets and clothes that promised me wonderful rewards.  Over the years, I have been tempted by many of these items, tried some and been disappointed by most until one day I finally realized that this was as good as I get. At this point, I began to focus on the real me; the inner me.  Finally making peace with myself those many years ago has helped to define the me I am today; the me that I am proud of.  I have become my own best friend and I enjoy spending time with myself. Read more »

Making the Years Golden

Hats off to AARP for debunking another myth about retired people.  The conventional wisdom about the way retirement affects married couples goes something like this:  Once the husband and wife find themselves stuck in each other’s company every minute of every day, they drive each other crazy and fretfully yearn to return to work.  Independent researchers for AARP - The Magazine did a phone survey of more than 1,00 retirees between the ages of 55 to 75 years old.  What they discovered is that relationships remained as strong as they had been or became even stronger once these people retired.  In fact, 74 percent of the respondents said they were happier in retirement than they had been when they were working.  A second honeymoon but with a different twist from the first.  This time around, however, the joy of sex seems to be replaced by the joys of traveling, eating out, exercising, volunteering, pursuing their hobbies and what else, but surfing the Internet.  Go figure, reaching the big “O” is now replaced with shopping on-line at the big “O.” Read more »

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