FSA time

It's FSA time

It's that time of year when you have to use it or lose it. What is IT? Your own money. Last year you decided how much money you were going to spend on your medical bills, expected or unexpected. Now, assuming that you had no unforeseen hospitalization, you get to decide where the remainder of your Flexible Spending Account money should be spent. I blew mine on a new pair of glasses. Actually I had budgeted for the glasses and they cost less that my last pair, so when I came up 91 dollars short and had to put the rest on my own credit card, I figured that I had made a fairly accurate choice when I determined how much money I could afford to spend on getting sick. However, no sooner had I gotten home than I received two bills, in the mail that added up to $208.69. Wow! That's nearly three hundred dollars that I fell short on my allotment. That's really gonna cost me at tax time. How could I have been so wrong in knowing how much sickness and disability my family had going on?

Of course, I could have applied my medical expenses to my itemized deductions on this years' income tax return. But, then I would only be able to claim the amount that exceeds 7.5% of my Adjusted Gross Income. I would have to pay taxes on all the rest of my legitimate expenses. I wonder how many people work their accountants to the max to squeeze past that 7.5% figure. I know that, in years past, I've spent hours on it. Now, with the FSA, I get to save the tax on all of my medical expenses up to the magical predetermined amount that I came up with, last year. Gee, wouldn't it be nice if, one day, some kindly governmental body would grant us the grace to simply deduct all of the money we may need to spend on our poor, fragile bodies.

The government also determines what sorts of medical expenses I'm allowed to spend my allotment on. Vitamins, to prevent illness, are not legitimate expenses. You can't have them unless you are in such dire straits that a doctor has to prescribe something like a B12 shot to get you back on your feet. So, vitamins are a necessary thing for your body to function. And sometimes they can be "therapeutic" - but not always. Now, I take a B12 pill every morning. No, that is not allowed. It's OK over there, but not over here. Hmm.

And what sheep we are. To look to government to provide the framework for our daily lives. To have to spend money to figure out how much money I have to send in to the government so that the government can tell me how to spend my own money; indeed, how to live my own life. To tell me what kind of car to buy, what kind of food to eat, and how to flush the toilet. The government even put into law a plan that tells you how to account for the money you pay to charitable organizations so that they can provide the services that they used to provide before the government decided that government should provide those same services. I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help . . .

All of these little plans are gimmicks that say, "You are an irresponsible little child who can't be trusted to spend your own money or make decisions in your own life". Doesn't anyone else find this just a little bit insulting?

When the government has control of your money, then the government has control of your freedom. Doesn't anyone else find this just a little bit dangerous?

Grounds For Optimism

Ran across this article, yesterday, about the world coffee situation. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has noticed a recent improvement in the availability of drinkable coffee.

Background: I tried - I really did - but the coffee you get at most restaurants should be illegal. I mean, do these people bribe the health department to let them sell hot, muddy, tasteless, water to innocent consumers? And it's common knowledge, too - you used to hear jokes about it, on sitcoms, all the time. Well, I had just about given up on coffee, in 2006, when I happened upon a Starbucks concession at a corporate office site, where I was working. Even though the coffee was not freshly ground, and it was set up to "serve yourself" from an air pot, I determined the end result to be the best coffee I had ever tasted! It was French Roast, their daily BOLD blend, and all I had to do was to put enough Half and Half in so that it didn't taste like ear wax! I was definitely impressed.

From then, on, I have been searching for more of that great flavor. I've tried the Folger's coffeehouse series (Black Silk is best). And I received a coffee grinder for Christmas, so I am delving into the ancient art of grinding my own beans (they aren't all great). But, even in small coffee shops and company cafeterias, the quality of coffee is getting better. (One of the better blends is found at OZO, on Arapahoe, in the People's Republic of Boulder.)

Apparently, Starbucks success has raised the bar on coffee. Now, the general public is aware that coffee can actually taste good.

Unfortunately, it appears that Starbucks has become a victim of its own success as the company does not continue to rake in increasingly higher profits.
My advice: Get rid of the ugly tip jar!

Babies are punishment?

He-whose-middle-name-must-not-be-spoken has weighed in with his particular slant on abortion . . . if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.

Class, the lesson for today is CAUSE and EFFECT.

ACTIONS BRING CONSEQUENCES

Learn this and early and save yourself future pain.

- Drop a rock on your foot and it will hurt!

- Commit yourself to a home loan you can't afford and you lose your house.

- Have unprotected teen sex outside of marriage and you can end up pregnant, broke, and living off of government assistance for the rest of your life. -- Or you could end up dead from an STD.

Fail to learn this and you will end up a useless, hedonistic fool.

Fail to teach this to your children and you breed hate and contempt.

ALTERNATE LESSON:

Apparently, it is OK to kill someone if they "punish" you - or if they simply inconvenience you. This is a terrible lesson to be teaching to our children, but it IS what they are learning. An example of this fact was played out at a Denver school, this year, where a young child brought a gun to school in order to shoot his teachers. His explanation was that they would be "nicer" to him when they came back. --- Came back from where? --- This is what happens when human life is cheapened. And how can you defend anyone from being wantonly killed when it becomes morally acceptable for our officials to willfully fail to protect the most defenseless of all - babies: born or unborn. Instead, parents provide training to their children - intensive training - in the form of role-playing games such as Grand Theft Auto, so that children can become as proficient as possible in committing violent assault and robbery against innocent people.

I thought about this, the other day, when I saw a pretty Colorado license plate with the slogan "RESPECT LIFE" and I thought that it was too bad that these weren't produced until the lack of respect for life had played out to its logical conclusion at Columbine High School.

---dan

A semla on Fat Tuesday

The World According to Pia: A semla on Fat Tuesday

My wish list for Lent:
- Semlor (plural) . . . . . . . Where can I find them in Colorado?

---dan

School pays students to take test

School-pays-students-take-test

I probably have better things to do, but I was prompted to step into the blogosphere by the announcement of this story.

Denver schools have a scheme that pays kids at Manual High School to take the CSAP test. This is paid for by private donors. The principal calls it bribery and reluctantly admits that it works.

~~~"I don't believe in it, but it works," Stein said Thursday.~~~

Paying students to show up for the state mandated testing has resulted in 100% attendance. Some people might call this pay for performance. But, of course, this would be anathema to the teachers' union who resist any attempt to associate performance with rewards.

I wonder if they view the payment of salaries as a form of bribery.
Should we bribe employees to show up for work?
Perhaps.
How else will we be able to continue funding the "entitlement" programs that pay people for doing absolutely nothing, which, of course, is exactly what the "union thugs" want.

---dan