Liz, you pose an interesting fact about the utilities.  I have tracked our monthly utility costs for the past 5 years.  Especially with 2 teens moving out of the house our usage of water & gas & electricity has gone way down but our bills are higher.  The utilities have been raising customer cost before any serious "going green" conservation hit the nation.

No matter what the little guy is going to pay the piper for everyone else’s sins.  We will work harder for less and use less to  pay them more. 

Morning Frannie, that is interesting about the Mexican drug money buying appliances to sell in Mexico.  I hadn’t heard that.  Boy the criminal mind is very creative.

As for our high corporate tax rate- there isn’t a business around that pays the 35% due to all of the deductions our laws allow.  Other countries may have a lower rate but they do not have the deductions.  So it would good journalism for someone to actually state  what the average U.S. net corporate tax rate is and compare that to the other countries.  I have not heard one journalist give an example of foreign corporate tax rates, have you? 

Lady Gator, that is so funny!  We had deer liking the birdseed out of the bird feeder.  I decided this year I will not plant any veggies - cannot afford to do all that work (and expense) for animals to eat —and waste- my veggies.  They would take one bite out of each tomato and leave it on the ground.  

Deber, you are right on with your ideas.  And the stimulus package - only a very small portion has even been spent so it in no way is responsible for any recovery.  It is only going to cause huge inflation down the road and THAT will kill any recovery we have going.

Laureen - the key word is that you can still "choose".  Most of us no longer have that level of control in our lives anymore.

Roger, my heart breaks for these young kids- the college grads who cannot find work.  They are frantic, anxiety ridden and so lost.  This is unlike anything they have ever had to deal with in their sheltered wealthy upbringing.

When are we supposed to receive the one time payment?  I haven’t seen anything yet.

Donna, The city assessed down my home value- but raised the percentage I have to pay in property tax so I had a net increase in my propoerty taxes. 

C Jay- THANK YOU!!!  Thank you for talking about the need for term limits!  Yes! Absolutely Yes.  These career politicians are in it only for themsleves and career longevity through campaign fund raising.  We also need to get rid of campaign fund raising needs.   This economic crisis , bank corruption can all be traced back to politicians needing to raise huge sums of money for their reelections.  They looked the other way from greedy banks and corporations because our leaders in government needed the money for rich corporations when it was time to camapign AGAIN.

HI Frannie, Yaeh to making "things" to EXPORT!  Let other countried buy stuff  - our stuff- and we continue to save - now that would be good for our country.  We used to be an exporter country.  I love that Obama is closing the tax loopholes.  My old employer exported a ton of jobs to MX, China  & Poland.  They made this stuff exploiting the terribly cheap labor.  The company then created a paper company called Luxembourg and sold the cheap labor products at full price to their own Luxembourg company.  Luxembourg then turned around with no labor added or anything and sold this stuff at the same previously marked up price   to U.S. customers - GM & Chrysler at no profit.  Therefore my previous employer declared no profit to U.S and therefore had no taxes to pay.  This was a legal loophole.  I have tried for 3 years to get Congress to close this loophole- hopefully they captured this in their efforts this time.  It is scary how half -tushie Congress writes legislation. 

C Jay- what state do you live in that is clamoring for employees?

I would love a home grown tomato.  I can’t keep the woodchucks and squirrels away from eating them when I try to grow my own.

Oh I want to hear the story of Mine that Bird!

Love ya" Frannie.  It is a gift to be able to correct others without being insulting and you have that gift.

Hi Frannie,  as a child I desperately wanted a palamino.  (I got a duck and a turtle instead - since  I grew up in an apartment for the first part of my childhood)  I did the occassional riding stables - with no lessons until I was in my 40’s.  That is when I learned to water ski and ride.  I love horses and just loved riding them.  I enjoyed so much their different personalities, how their gait, trot, cantor rhythms etc were so different, and their immmense power always blew me away.    I would love to have my own horse, but I hurt my back (not from riding) and do not think I can get back into it anymore.  In my dreams.  One thing though that I found disappointing was that the horses did not seem to develop any affection for the humans.  Did you see this?  The family that ran the riding school said that horses were indifferent to people.