Wednesday August 8, 2012

Ms P and I got up with the alarm at 0555. Today I have Breakfast Club. I was downtown by 0700. The food was especially good this morning, French toast and scrambled eggs. The speakers talked about GVSU's leadership program. After BC I headed to the Kava House. I almost finished the WSJ before my meter expired. I found a WSJ Editorial that compares the USA with Greece in relation to scams that are ripping folks off. For example it takes twice as many firefighters to put out 1/2 as many fires as 30 years ago. The UC system has seen the number of senior administrators grow rapidly so that there are now 1 administrator for every teacher. In 1980 it took 1 administrator to see five Medicare cases today the ratio is 1 to 2.5. Retirees for the Long Island RR abuse the systems to the point that 98% apply for disability benefits. Most receive them. You can retire from the LIRR at age 50. This scam is presently being investigated by the Feds. The number of employed Americans grew by 316,000 the first 41 months of the Obama Administration. The number of Americans receiving Social Security disability benefits grew by 1,291,000. The SS disability is a major rip off. On a happier note today is my sister Helen's birthday. I would not tell Helen's age but she is younger than I am. I remember when my Mom and Dad brought Helen home from the hospital. In those days new Moms were not to exert themselves until several weeks after giving birth. My Dad picked Mom up in his arms and carried her upstairs. As a three year old I was very impressed with Dad's strength. I had a quick lunch and then I got in the C2 and headed downtown for a 1200 GRBA meeting. We had a small agenda and the meeting was over in 20 minutes. Tonight Nancy has book club so I met Tom Moleski for pizza at Vitales. I had a 12" pizza and it was really good. On my way home I was overcome with an urge for something sweet. I stopped and purchased a soft ice cream cone. Nancy got home about 2000. I fell asleep in the recliner and when I woke at 1015 Nancy and Ms P had already gone upstairs.