Dr Copa

Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don’t want to do business with you any longer. 

The Bank: Why?

Customer: You’re giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don’t think it’s right. I’m taking my business elsewhere.

The Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don’t want to see you do that, but we can’t stop you. I’ll help you close the account. What is your account number?

Customer: (gives account number)

The Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please give me the last four digits of your social security number?

Customer: No?

The Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order to help you, I’ll need verification of who you are..

Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I’m closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don’t have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let’s say I’m an illegal immigrant and you’ve given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn’t be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?

The Bank: No sir, I wouldn’t.

Customer: Why not?

The Bank: Because you would have pressed ‘2′ to speak in Spanish. We don’t ask for that information when calling in on the Spanish line.

My favorite uncle, who is a proud Vietnam Vet, is looking for a good Mesothelioma Lawyer to help with his fight against this Mesothelioma Disease that we are hearing more and more about, especially on the TV. There has been plenty of Mesothelioma Attorney commercials on the local channels these past few years and the issue isn’t going to go away for many inflicted people.

My uncle never got over his experience in the Vietnam Police Action mentally. He spent a good amount of his time in the service under the waters in a submarine, which is where they believe he contacted this type of cancer. So by serving his country his head is all screwed up for life and now we are learning that his physical condition, which is deteriorating rapidly is due to his time over seas as well. A double whammy, if you will.

The VA has truly been wonderful. They had such a bad reputation for so very long that my uncle stayed away from anything to do with the VA hospital, but thankfully he was persuaded to give them a try, which he did, and it’s all been good, so far and I hope that they continue to take the best possible care of this special person in my family’s life.

My sister-in-law told me that just the thought of the Muslim community even thinking about building a brand new Mosque any where near “Ground Zero” in New York City makes her stomach start to scream for the injustice of the whole idea. She’s very upset to think that there is a strong possibility of this plan going through.

I, on the other hand, realize that the Muslim community has no control over the extremists who planned and carried out the terrorist attacks. I wish people would just get over this racist hatred.

I’ve discovered some nice shepard fairey prints online at shepardfaireyprints.com, along with some pretty interesting obey giant art. I’ve never really been all that keen on art, but now and then I do see some work that catches my eye such as this collection. This shepard fairey art  is authentic and they have out of print work offers there as well.

The Internet makes appreciating and learning about artists. They have taken a lot of music and art out of schools, for budgeting issues, which is a real drag. If you aren’t brought up with art in your life and not given a chance in school to find out about it, it makes it difficult to get into later in life. If it wasn’t for what I learned in school, in art class, I really would be pretty much clueless about most art. I basically about shephard fairey art because of his famous Obama HOPE poster that became so popular during last year’s election, how can anyone forget this classic?

I just got back from having my taxes done and I am glad to say that I’ll be getting a few bucks back from good old Uncle Sam, I have to say that  it really hurts to have to shell out so much money to the tax preparer. I really don’t have all that much involved when it comes to my taxes. It’s not like I was able to take advantage of the recently extended First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, although I did have a lot of medical and charitable deductions that certainly helped the situation. Well worth the time and effort it took to keep track of all of those pesky pieces of paperwork for the past year.

There are a lot of options (credits, deductions, etc.) out there for people to utilize for the yearly tax issues. I can’t imagine doing taxes for a living, way too many variables involved there and when you are dealing with other people’s money you really need to be careful! My luck some one would get upset with what I had done and come after me with a shotgun or something crazy like that.

I did find an interesting video on You Tube that I wanted to post here for anyone interested in learning about the Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension. Anything to keep more money in our pockets and not the I.R.S. right?!

The statistics can be found online about the drug and alcohol abuse that is on the rise. It seems that when the economy is in turmoil people find ways to ease the pain and most likely they will turn to drugs and/or alcohol. It is sad, but true and I’m glad that there are quality Residential Drug Rehab centers opening up all across the country that can help people in their times of need.

This is a subject that is no longer being kept in the dark. Dr. Drew opened up a lot of people’s minds about Drug Detox and Alcohol Rehab with his Celebrity Rehab television series on VH1. Celebrities have always been known to struggle with addiction issues, and we are a society that thrives on what all the celebrities are wearing and doing. Dr. Drew’s series gave some good information for the general public to chew on and has made this subject easier to discuss and I’m grateful to him for that.

Most of us know some one who needs help in this area, the Internet is a valuable tool and has become a great resource to find information concerning addiction and dependency issues. Hopefully the economy will be easing up and the stress levels of the general population will decrease and life will go on for most of us. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

There has been a big push in our community to get people to purchase and install good quality mail boxes. The city is having the street numbers painted on the curbs in front of people’s residences, but they are also asking that the Residential Mailboxes and Commercial Mailboxes have the street numbers printed on them so that our emergency personnel can locate the proper address in a timely fashion.

At a time when every second counts, in the event of an emergency it is best to have everything in place to make the most out of what our taxes are being used for. There has been several times lately that our emergency personnel have not been able to get to where they need to be due to Mailboxes not having the name and proper address on them.

A mailbox can make a difference and I’d like to get the word out here in hopes that more people will take note and possibly save a few lives in the mean time. I’m very glad that our city council has stepped up to the plate and is taking action in this area.

Well, I heard that President Obama commented that he can’t bowl very well. Something to the effect that when he bowls, he looks like he’s participating in the Special Olympics. And I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of hoopla about how that was a disparaging comment “insult” to the people who do actually participate in the Special Olympics. Well, I don’t think that President Obama meant to insult anyone. Everyone knows that the people who participate in the Special Olympics are handicapped. And that handicapped people are “differently abled” and sometimes have to expend extra effort to achieve what many of us take for granted. It’s too bad that there is always so much attention paid to people’s errors; I think that it was not ill-intended and I wish people would find better things to complain about!

My wife came home from work this afternoon, all aggravated because she had to work with someone who is very verbally opinionated when it comes to politics.   It is against the work rules to discuss politics because it can get really intense, but this woman ignores the rules and spouts off anyway.  Today she was spouting off that Obama promised a quick fix to the economy, but she hasn’t seen any changes yet! 

My wife told her that Obama did NOT promise a quick fix, and that in fact he has always said that it would take a long time and a lot of work.  It took a long time to get into the mess we are in, there is not going to be a magic wand that will fix it overnight.  This guy has only been in office for ONE month, and this woman is already running around complaining that the economy isn’t fixed yet!  Give him a chance, and give me a break!  Geez…..

I think that part of the big plan to get our economy “back on track” is to try harder to buy products that are Made in America.  Yes, there really ARE still products out there that ARE made in America, and many of them are high quality that will last a long time.  And if something lasts a long time, then it gives us good value.  and good value is really important.

Special Ops Equipment is an American made brand of equipment made for military and law enforcement personnel.  They make products such as personal organizers, belts, field gear, and rite in the rain supplies, to name a few.  This brand of equipment can be bought at the Brigade Quartermasters Internet website.

I heard that President Obama has mandated that there will be a cap of $500,000 annual salary for the CEOs of the companies that are getting federal bail out money.  I think that is entirely reasonable – in fact, I think that should be the cap for ALL CEOs throughout the USA!  That is plenty of money for a person to live more than comfortably!  It would be nice if some of those big bucks “trickled down” to the non-management laborers and first and second level managers.  That would REALLY stimulate the economy!

It was no surprise to my wife and I to hear on the morning news that the country is officially in a recession – since last December! We’ve known it all along; we’re just surprised that it took this long for it to be “official.” All this year “they’ve” been denying it, and now they’ve finally acknowledged it. I don’t know WHAT took so long for them to admit it! I just hope that after January things will get turned around. I know it is going to take a while; I hope we can hold on until then!

I was reading on the Time.com website that the EPA is going to be recognizing that Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant.  At first I wondered why that was an important story, but as I continued to read it became clear that it is very important because it is going to effect the way new coal plants will be allowed to operate.  It means that the EPA will regulate the emissions and that the coal plants will have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.  This means less pollution in the air, which is good for all of us!

Well I got up early this morning, as usual (I’m an early riser) but I got dressed and headed out the door at 5:40 to go to the polls to vote.  The polling location is only three miles from our house, and I thought that I could get in the door and vote and get back home again PDQ.  I was some surprised to find the parking lot full and a long line of people!  I tried to park on the street, but a police officer told me that I couldn’t park there and had to move my car.  Since I was hurt in a car accident last fall I can’t walk very far, so I couldn’t park far away and walk the rest of the way, so I just came home, discouraged.  My wife says to wait until around 10am when most of the people will all be at work, hoping that the polls will be less crowded then. 

We live in a small town, with only about 2,000 people in it, so I hope she’s right and that I will be able to vote in a few hours.

I thought it was terribly sad to hear on the news last night that Barack Obama’s grandmother died yesterday of cancer. I had heard that she was ill, and that Barack Obama had gone to see her recently because of her illness. I just think it is so sad that she died when she did – the day before the elections. Not knowing if her grandson was elected or not. And I’m thinking about how this will be such a mixed bag of emotions for Barack Obama, the stress of the elections and the stress of losing his grandmother, it must be a terribly difficult time for the Obama family.

I was watching the CNN Headline News this morning and saw that there is a county in Florida (I think it is Broward) that has actively helped the eligible high schoolers register to vote, and has actually transported the high schoolers by school bus to early voting so they could participate in the election. The story indicated that there were 3600 of them that voted! I think that is a wonderful thing to do; I think that all high schools across the country should do the exact same thing!

I stumbled on a story on the Time.com website that was talking about the new Paris Hilton for President campaign video that can be seen on the funnyordie website. The story had a link to the video, so I naturally clicked on it (just curious, you know!) and watched the video. The ad was not quite as funny as the first one, but it was good for a few chuckles. I hope she produces a couple more of these, the world could use a few good chuckles!

My wife and I were talking last night about how very weird it was that the Obama had decided to bring out that new “seal” to display in front of him during the campaign.  It was so MUCH like the Presidential seal that we both felt that it was being a little bit “presumptuous” to be using it.  We were both really surprised that the people in his campaign came up with that seal, and even more surprised that Obama agreed to use it!  It seems like the newscasters could not let go of talking about the seal, either.  I think it was quite a snafu in what seems to be an otherwise well managed campaign!

I guess I really don’t understand why people are protesting the running of the Olympic torch.  The time to protest the location of the Olympics was BEFORE the committee gave it to China!  We all knew (didn’t we?) that China has a bad reputation for abusing human rights.  The Olympic committee made a grave mistake when it believed China’s promise that they would “improve” that situation. 

But, the Olympics WAS awarded to China, and for countries to boycott it now is only harming the athletes who have been training so hard to attend and compete.