This book looks at all of the things which are part of the American belief system. The Judge writes from what he knows and sees happening every day as judgements are handed down and the constitution is “re-interpreted to “correct” what they really meant so long ago when it was written.
All of the chapters have provocative titles and illustrate how things really are. The first one of course is the canard that “All Men are Created Equal”. Well… not really all men, Chinese and Africans were never considered, nor where those who didn’t own property and, of course, women didn’t need to vote because their husbands would do it for them. Yeah, right! “Every Vote Counts” is only good if you live in a State which recognizes you as a voter.
Congress Shall Make No Law Abridging the Freedom of Speech. Unless, of course, you want to tell government secrets or libel your neighbour or – well we could go on and on.
The comments are all backed up by case law and actual rulings. “It’s Only a Temporary Program” was what they called income tax. “We are winning the War on Drugs” – NOT. “Everyone is Innocent until Proven Guilty? Only if the press doesn’t tell the world before you get to court.
One of the examples is the Right to Be Secure in Your Home which got turned on it’s head when the City of New London decided to expropriate 76 acres of property, not for their own or the “public good” but to turn around and give the land to a private developer who would make new malls, condos and business centres. When an elderly couple tried to stop them the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the right – get this – not of the couple but of the City to take their property.
Many other supposed truisms are looked at. Things like “Your Boys are Not Going to Be Sent into Any Foreign Wars” and “We Don’t Torture” . The last one examined is “America has a Free Market”. Along with a number of items which have been judged and ruled on which prove that this is just not what is really happening.
If you find our neighbour to the south an interesting and confusing dichotomy then this is the book for you.
Have you been frustrated by something which happened to you recently? Is there a better way to provide a service than what you’ve seen? Have you identified a new twist on some tool? How many others are trying to do the same thing you want to do? All of those might be good clues that you should start a business which provides quality and satisfaction to others. The idea of enjoying your work fell out of fashion somehow and has lead to employees being surly, uncooperative and unhelpful to those who buy their product or use their service. I subscribe to the “take your skills to another place” school for two reasons. You cannot benefit your current employer and will only make yourself sick and bitter if you are not doing something which is exciting and important to you.
When you decide to leave and do what you were born to do (by enjoying the way you spend your days)you need to think through the following steps to ensure that your future is different from your past. Here are ten tips on starting that business which will make your dreams come true.
Can you do “it” better than someone else?You need to have the belief in yourself and your abilities to truly feel in your soul that this is the right thing for you to be doing. If you don’t it is easy to get discouraged and lose sight of your goal. You’ll soon find yourself feeling mired in drudgery again.
Will “it” be fun?Even more important than being the best at what you chose to do is ensuring that it’s fun today and will be tomorrow; for yourself, your family, your employees and most importantly for your customers and clients. As success begins to arrive don’t skimp and cut back so that you and your employees have to apologize for poor service or lack of inventory or unavailable parts to fix something. Running a business on a shoestring is not a fun situation.
Is this business a money earner or a charity?Think about your start-up costs. If you start by borrowing all the capital for your business, you won’t own anything. Expansion capital will not be available later on if you’re mortgaged to the hilt. Will “it” actually bring in money? How long will it take to find your first customer? And will that customer return again or not, and how quickly will they come back? Do you need referrals only, or print ads, or will social media (mostly free) actually bring people with money in their pockets to your door?
Can you do everything by yourself?An important early decision in any endeavour is whether you can do everything and just as importantly whether you will do everything. Deciding that your spouse can do your books for you isn’t helpful if he/she hates math, works a full time job, has children or really doesn’t share your dream of selling gumballs to the Inuit in the great white north. If you must hire people to produce a product, man a storefront, or do other jobs, where will the funds to pay them come from and where will you find your people? Temp agencies can be expensive. Re-training new staff takes time and effort How much time do you want to devote to that?
How long are you prepared to support the business and when is the right time to get outside financing?This is the underlying thought behind some of the earlier questions. If you need to take home $500 a week for yourself and that is 5% of gross sales, can you make $10,000 worth of sales each and every week? If not, you need to carefully decide how long you can get by without that much. Set your maximum time limit and keep measuring to see how close you are to the goal. If you borrow money to get started, you probably will have to wait much longer until you start getting paid because one of the expenses which come long before a personal profit will be3 repayment of the loan. If borrowing is from family they probably will need it back at some point to live on or you may have to support them. Personal borrowings are one of the factors which a professional lender will look at before advancing funds to you. Be very clear with yourself and have a Plan A and a fully ready Plan B too.
How long do you want to keep doing “it”?Is this business a stop gap while you’re between career opportunities in the workforce? Are you going to do this for the next 5 or 10 years? Are you only going to work Monday to Wednesday? Is this business to create prestige for yourself? If it to build a “For Sale” business and make a huge profit? Is this for your grandchildren? Know yourself and what your commitment level is. If you have had 4 careers in the last 20 years, how serious will you be this time? Each of the above thoughts matter because you need to consider things like insurance and length of terms when borrowing money or taking on leases. Longer term borrowing requires less payment per month but ties up capital which might fund expansion or profit. Not too many willing buyers will take over your debts.
When will you hire others?Every successful business grows beyond just one person. Hiring too soon can drain funds which are needed to invest in inventory and equipment. Do you really need to sit in an office paying bills and waiting for the phone to ring when there is no salesperson out on the road talking about your wonderful product or service? Who’s your best salesman? If it’s not you that’s an Oops and will kill your business’ growth.
When do you start taking money out?Are you contemplating borrowing money in order to pay yourself? Lenders aren’t really turned on by that. Think about it. If you had lots of money, would you invest in real things like machines and real estate or would you give it to someone to live on while they try to tart a new unproven business? Be sure before you apply for money that you have made yourself trustworthy and believable enough that lenders will have something to want to invest in. Don’t ask until you have a track record.
Can you sell enough of “it” to leave a reasonable 10% for profit and re-investment?This harks back to question 5 but makes the point that beside money for yourself the business must re-invest at least 5% of it’s profits back into the business to keep it growing. That 10% does not include any money to pay off existing finance loans.
Who will you ask for mentoring or advice?Do you know anyone who is doing something similar to what you want to do? The ones who fail are the car mechanics who depend on their brother-in-law, the realtor, for advice on how to run and market a car business. Your mentor does not necessarily need to be in the exact same business but if they aren’t working for themselves and have not faced the same challenges, will they understand and be able to advice and anticipate your needs? A god mentor is a sounding board for your ides and can help you with resources and advice to keep you enthusiastic and working toward your envisioned goals.
Good luck and go for the gold ring. You can be what you dream of.
This week I found some stunning photography of Trees from various places around the world. These amazing carbon dioxide eaters who return oxygen to the air make it possible for humans to survive. Each year they wake from the dormancy of winter and with the return of longer hours of sunlight they begin to work their magic on our environment.
This is another of those great mystery thriller books which tells a story which travels through time similarly to The Time Travelers Wife.
The story begins in the far north of modern day Sweden. Eighteen elderly citizens in a small village are killed brutally and with purposeful cruelty. One 12 year old is also found dead but he was killed quickly obviously in his sleep. Why would anyone want to commit such a horrible crime? What could seniors have done to enrage someone enough for the barbarous way they died?
A long way south in Halsingborg, Judge Birgita Roslin, reads about it and recognizes one of the homes as being a place where her mother lived as a foster child long ago. Feeling a connection she travels north to see if these are the people who raised her mother.
The only clue to the crime which perplexes the police is a red faux silk ribbon found in the snow. With this clue Birgita follows a trail which leads to far-away China, to America, to Africa and finally to London England.
An amazing series of clues leads to a one hundred year old diary which is in the hands of a Chinese business mandarin. The diary was written by a Swedish man who was a foreman building the railroads in America in the 1850s and 1860s.
The connections are well crafted and the clues work well. If you enjoy a murder mystery this is a great read.
Most people are trying to catch up with what a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) is these days, never mind the Group part. Let’s start at the beginning and walk through it together.
Many years ago, the Canadian government came up with a way to encourage us to save for our old age so that they wouldn’t have to support us when the time came. The Registered Retirement Savings Plan came into being with this thinking in mind: if you and I put money away on a regular basis which would take care of us when we no longer are able to work, then the government would give us back the tax now which was deducted from our paychecks and not make us pay tax on the interest and dividends earned until we actually took the money out.
Why were they so generous? Because when we do take out that money, there will be more of it and they will get more tax. The theory was good for us too so long as we didn’t take out all of the money at one time, we were in control of the amount of tax we had to pay back to the government.
Because everyone immediately jumped on the “save the tax” bandwagon in order to get refunds, large sums of money began to accumulate. This money was clearly for retirement but in the meantime everyone had “life” get in their way. They wanted to buy a home, the house needed repairs, the car broke down, they got laid off and wanted to go back to school to give themselves more earning power and some of them got sick and had no critical illness insurance to help them get through that period.
This created a clear dilemma. Some people had to withdraw funds and they got upset when they had to pay back the tax on their own money. After a bit, the government thought things over and decided that they would allow people to take out some of the money to use pre-retirement for two purposes. One type of withdrawal was to buy their first home and the second was to go back to school. It encouraged the housing sector and created a better educated workforce. There are conditions to taking that money out so be careful to consult a qualified professional before going ahead. And so it has been for many years now.
Another serious complaint with an RRSP is that the date you must begin taking money is set by your age and also the amount you must take out are mandated. With people living longer and not having saved enough, they didn’t like to have to start taking the money until they were ready. In a down year like 2008, because withdrawal amounts are based on the previous year, folks felt that they were draining their savings by taking too much out. Their savings shrank and there was general fear-mongering by the media and some critics that lots of people would run out of money before they ran out of life.
In 2008 a very interesting new plan was put in place which answered some of the complaints that had surfaced regarding the Registered Retirement Savings Plans. What if everyone was allowed to put away up to $5,000 per year as an investment and never pay tax on the earnings of that investment? Oh, and be able to take it out when they wanted to and in the amounts they wanted to? Even better what if they could re-use the deposit room when times were better?
To be fair, there would be no immediate tax refund on the money deposited so that the government wouldn’t lose all the revenue on that money. Since we all want schools, paved roads, medical care, etc. we do need to contribute to government coffers. That’s how the Tax Free Savings Account came to be.
Most employees are familiar with the idea of contributing to their RRSP through a plan with their employer. Not necessarily, but often, the employer will contribute something if the employee does too. When you contribute, the amount is deducted from your gross pay before the tax is calculated. This means that the tax stays in your hands and there is no large refund in May after doing your taxes. As an example, if you earn $1,000 a week, your tax deduction would be $320 in Ontario and net pay before other deductions would be $680. If you contributed $50 of that $1,000 pay to a Group RRSP the tax deduction would be $304 and the net pay would be $646. Even though you contribute $50, the take-home is only short $34. Is that a good reason to talk to your employer about having a plan in place?
It is also possible now to have a Group Tax Free Savings Account with your employer which allows you to invest in Segregated Funds, Mutual Funds, Guaranteed Investment Certificates or a combination of them. You don’t need to set up withdrawals from your bank accounts with any other company unless you want to deal with a particular bank or insurance agent for personal reasons. It can all be done from your paycheque.
You won’t ever have an NSF again. At least not for taking care of your emergency fund and your retirement savings. By combining the two major objectives you will have both a saving pocket for those “life” happenings and another living pocket for the time when you either don’t want to or can’t go out and make a living.
Good employers care about the people they work with every day. They want to ensure that when there is a need, it will be taken care of. Helping their employees to be financially wise through providing tools to help them is a hallmark which bosses strive for. If you or your employer have questions, you may contact me at sue@suesviews.ca
We have all heard and read about Social Media and how we should be using it but most of us haven’t got a clue. If that includes you – and even if it doesn’t – you should take the time to read and follow through on this book.
You may assume that you and your business aren’t big enough to use media. Well I think you are probably quite wrong about that. Unless you are completely happy with your life, your job, your business and the way everything is going (bless you if you are) you should be connected to the internet and the rest of the world which is out there. Believe it or not, if you don’t tell people who you are, what you are thinking about, what great things you can do and why they should connect with you, it just will not happen. All the visioning in the world isn’t as good as you are when you talk or write with passion about things you care about. The collective of many minds is capable of coming up with exciting and practical new methods of dealing with life and its many aspects.
This book is a step-by-step plan on how to work one hour a day over three months so that you can understand what’s going on out there. Gradually by following the guidelines you will learn where and how you fit into the social media whirl. With time and practical advice you can use to your advantage all those tools which are online.
Many of those tools are absolutely free once you have a computer and an internet connection. Why not try them and see what it brings your way?
The first part of the book is a history lesson on how it came about and what social media is and is not. How it has been used by others and what things are contained within this all inclusive term are explained with a little psychology on how and why people learn and believe when online.
Part two is Web 2.0 the power of the collective. How to give and receive feedback on whatever your current interests are. Learning how to find and collect information is important and understanding how to analyze what you find is even more important. Being able to sort the fact from the fiction and following logic through its course are important. When you have decided what the data you have found is telling you, you can begin to use it to influence and measure those around you whether that’s for business sales, to change society or simply to educate others.
The third part will walk you through specific ways to use the social media to review, rate and recommend to others through consensus marketing using such things as video, audio, pictorials and good old print to help yourself to reach others with similar interests and to carve out your space as a reliable and responsible adviser on your favourite topic.
The back of the book has a set of worksheets to help you create a Social Media Plan, big or small, which will help you through the decision-making process. There is also an index of Social Media Resources which you can use as you grow and challenge yourself to become what you dream of while sitting around in your slippers. Are you up to the challenge? Go for it!!
Here are a couple of interesting stories. Would you believe the biggest hailstone every recorded was 440 pounds. And have you ever thought about what would happen if you tried to throw a pan of water when the temperature is -80F outside. Have a read.
Have you ever spent time dreaming of what your ideal community would look like? I have been attending a Community Leadership Program for the last 6 months and we have done a lot of thinking about such things.
We’ve talked and read about setting goals, visioning what it is that we want to accomplish and where we think our society should be headed. How do we encourage and foster those around us to see our vision and what steps need to be taken to accomplish the dream? We looked at ways of drawing others to our cause. We even spent time on how to run meetings and ensure that everyone is heard and takes part in the action.
Universally, we agreed that the ideal society is safe, well educated, healthy and welcomes all newcomers.
This month we looked at Inclusiveness. Every one of us thought that we were very tolerant and that we had included in our thoughts and plans all types of people – all races, all religions, male and female, young and old, sick and healthy. Oh, wait a minute, did we really include sick and healthy?
Since we’re all reasonably healthy we haven’t spent a whole lot of time talking about physical handicaps and whether or not our ideal society could accommodate these people. We never looked at the type of houses and buildings which were in our community to see if they were accessible. We made a lot of assumptions. We assumed that having a good hospital with the latest medical knowledge available was enough. We hadn’t included accessibility in the physical sense as part of our dream home.
We didn’t talk about the effect of being in a wheelchair or having an artificial limb has on the daily tasks of living. Would we really want our Shangrila to be missing those people? Could those who are in Vancouver this week get around here? Probably not without a lot of modification and making-do without certain things.
But let’s go back to Inclusiveness and think again. Our human societies, no matter where they are located in this world will always contain “damaged” people such as criminals who do damage to others or to others property. Human Societies include the mentally ill, the criminally insane and the sex offenders, not to mention the sex workers – the perverts, the introverts, the extroverts. It also includes the homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and the heterosexual. Some of the world’s most enlightened thinkers have been or allegedly have been other than heterosexual. Would we want all of their contributions to be excluded from our society?
When we talk about accepting all religious beliefs, do we include Atheists and the cult leaders who would force others to follow their will? Or are we looking for only non-aggressive or non-delusional theists? And just who defines those conditions?
How would an ideal society deal with those who are every bit as human as you and I but have a different way of dealing with their world and controlling their innate emotions? I challenge you to think about these things.
How do we decide fairly and equitably what the “common good” is? What kind of rules to set up, to live by. They need to be carefully scrutinized. Since organized religions are falling out of favour as we become a more educated society as a whole we need to spend some time thinking about and talking openly and honestly about the barriers that we put up in society. In Canada we have by and large tried to stop discrimination by colour, by religion and by education, but there are other types of “isms” which make people different from one another.
Of course, I don’t endorse accepting criminal behaviour or leaving the mentally ill to their own devices. Neither do I think that we should allow anyone to do anything they get the urge to do no matter what. What I do encourage is looking at our beliefs and deciding whether a particular characteristic is a definer of human worth or not. We need to separate the actions from the person.
Restorative justice came into the Ontario Court systems very near to us and we all need to be aware of what the end result of our treatment of our fellow human beings can bring about. Some years back two teenagers in Elmira went out and got very drunk. They drove through town to get some more beer and were stopped by the local police. The police told them to get home right away and sleep it off. They did for a while but got even more drunk and high and went on a spree committing 72 acts of vandalism throughout the town. They were arrested and waited in jail before a hearing was held. A local Mennonite went to court and although he didn’t know the boys he advocated for them. He suggested that putting them in jail with hardened criminals would not accomplish much more than teach them how to commit bigger crimes. Instead, he asked the Judge to sentence them to go to each of the 72 people whose property had been damaged and apologize to each of them. The Judge agreed and by the end of their ordeal the boys were shame-faced and promised never to have to go through that again.
Was this the better solution? We can’t build enough jails, mental institutions and holding areas to remove all of the bad and damaged people from our society. What could and what should we be doing to make our society safe? Who should be making decisions about behaviour issues? When was the last time you actually thought about this issue in other than “us” and “them” terms.
Both of these books are in the fantasy romance category. Both have very clever plots and are an original twist on a supernatural character sketch. Fantasy reigns these days and sell many books.
All Bottled Up is a story about a shy, retiring young woman from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who wins a contest and the prize is a week long trip to an island vacation resort. On her first day she wanders into the waters of a secluded beach and stubs her toe on a gem encrusted bottle which contains – a Genie. A very yummy Genie who attracts her like no one ever has before. He grants her three wishes and it is up to her how she uses them. First she asks him to teach her everything she needs to know to make her boss notice her and then the fun starts. It’s a great romantic romp and the question is, of course, how will she be able to keep her Genie, who is named Jerod, around for the rest of her life.
The Immortal is FBI Agent Fin Kahill who in reality is a reformed vampire from ancient Ireland and a member of the ancient Sept which was driven out by the O’Malleys in the 1700′s. Transplanted to America, Delaware to be exact, the whole clan has changed and now dedicate themselves to living peaceably and ridding the human world of the worst murders that exist out there. This is the third book about the Kahill’s. Fin finds himself in the small beach community of Point Claire where he meets a mysterious Italian beauty named Elena. Shortly after that there is the murder of a 21 year-old which shows signs that he was killed by a vampire. Fin is attached to the local police department by his relatives in the Sept and must solve the mystery. The closer he gets to finding out who did this, the more Elena seems to be involved. Can he really have been so blind to some awful character flaws in Elena, or is someone trying to frame her?
Both neat, interesting stories which keep your interest. But in one particular way they are very different. While V. K. Forrest has Kensington Books as his publisher and who does a great job of producing his book, Christine D’Abo uses Samhain Publishing. What difference does that make? Well, a lot for me. Long before Microsoft Word became popular in the 1990′s there were word processors which used spell check. There is no excuse today for a book to come out with spelling and grammar mistakes except perhaps for laziness on the publishers part. Or perhaps they can’t afford to hire enough help to run the programs? That’s too bad as I enjoyed Christine D’Abo’s style. She is a local writer and is quite creative. She works hard at her craft and she deserves better.
Please take a chance though and read both for their originality and their story lines. You will find that both authours have many other books which may tempt you to spend a few hours in a fantasy world.
Here are some very strange and interesting site from various places around the world. Some you may know, others you haven’t seen or read about. Have a look at them at
http://bit.ly/b7z39W
PS Let me know how many you have seen. There is a prize for the most actually visited.
