Another Piece In The Bad Back Puzzle?

Long-time (and clairvoyant!) readers know that I seriously injured my back 11 years ago in a freak car accident.

Whiplash was the initial diagnosis; then TOS - Thoracic Outlet Syndrome - which was most manifest in a 99% occlusion of the vein in my left arm. I suffered a gradual loss of strength in my hands to the extent that the milk carton might fall out of my hand when pouring and that I had trouble opening a beer bottle (domestic!).

Ignorant, I underwent a risky invasive surgery where they cut all sorts of stuff out of my thoracic region. It was an attempt to free up physical space around the blood vessel and whatnot. The doctor from the opposing insurance company likened the procedure I subjected myself to, to *bloodletting*, i.e. contemporary quackery.  And he was probably right.

Anyways, there was no noticeable improvement in my condition post-surgery. At the follow-up with the doctor, he actually he sent one of his minions(!) who said, "Oh, you won't be able to tell if it helped for at least a year or longer; it takes a long time for nerves to decompress...". Heck the clown may as well have been a *financial adviser* wielding that long-run BS.

Even after the surgery, physical therapists, and the doctors, emphatically told me NOT TO DO any stretching, NOT TO DO anything like yoga because that would compress my blood vessels even more.

Of course they were, and are, complete Morons as *yoga* was the only thing that ever helped my back after surgery.

While my condition at the moment is stable, I am still far from 100% strong and healthy. But I'm honestly convinced that one day, before I leave this overheated, variable-climate planet....I'll discover the magical cure and restore my back completely.

Lately I've been reading a highly regarded, technical book - Trigger Point Therapy for Low Back Pain: A Self-treatment Workbook (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) - to that end.

A lot of the recommended treatment, to me, came off as highly technical and time intensive. It also seems like it's geared for *practitioners* and those who have much worse symptoms than I have. Though I'm sure if I reread it with application I'll really learn a lot - enough perhaps to become the masseuse that every chick dreams of marrying! (Years ago, I once had a young lady tell me that I should really study *massage*. And she was right! A man who can massage and dance proficiently will never have to suffer loneliness.)

When I went in for my surgery in 2001, my hands were weakening and all of my back pain was up high - from the upper back through the neck.

But when I came out, I started experiencing a new *lower* back pain. I would say the pain moved but after so many years of a stiff neck I can't even tell if my upper back is better now or if I just got used to it.

Whatever, this lower back pain is far more debilitating than the upper variety and actually goes down into the top of my hiney (images upon request).

From the book I'm inferring that my issues might be centered in my quadratus lumborum - which is the hard-to-target back wall of the abdomen or something.

The book says that one thing guaranteed to aggravate this particular area is *sleeping on one's side* - which I've done my entire life.

The author INSISTS that sleeping with the knees touching, one on top of the other like this, is very bad for this quadratus lumborum or whatever it is. It also leads to a postural imbalance which I also definitely have (left shoulder high) and have had since I was a kid.

She highly recommends that side-sleepers put a (king-sized) pillow between their legs at night.

Guess what. I tried it the other night and when I woke up, I was only 20% as stiff as I normally am. This may not sound like a big deal, but generally I wake up in such rough shape that I need to spend a full hour stretching each morning before I can fully function.

I was giddy all day yesterday thinking I may have finally found something helpful. So last night I leg-straddled a pillow again and also woke up this morning feeling positively bouncy.

Now I've had false starts before. After I bought an inversion table, the first time I used it I was euphoric and thought I had found the answer. Of course I didn't.

BTW, if you sleep on your stomach or flat on your back....you should also use pillows (under your stomach and under your knees respectively) to protect your spine - click here.

Blankets are always a good idea too - particularly when your camera-wielding buddies are around.

The Awakening - Anon

A time comes in your life when you finally get...when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.


This is your awakening.


You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon.


You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of "happily ever after" must begin with you...and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.


You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are…and that’s OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions.


You learn the importance of loving and championing yourself...and in the process a sense of newfound confidence is born of self-approval.


You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you – or didn’t do for you – and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected.


You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and everything isn’t always about you.


So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself...and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.


You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties…and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.


You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.


You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you’ve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with.


You learn that there is power and glory in creating and contributing and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a "consumer" looking for your next fix.


You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.


You learn that you don’t know everything, it’s not you job to save the world and that you can’t teach a pig to sing. You learn the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.


Then you learn about love. You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You learn that alone does not mean lonely.


You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.


You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over and ignoring your needs.


You learn that your body really is your temple. You begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin to eat a balanced diet, drinking more water, and take more time to exercise.


You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty and so you take more time to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play.


You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you deserve, and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.


You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen.


More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline and perseverance. You learn that no one can do it all alone, and that it’s OK to risk asking for help.


You learn the only thing you must truly fear is fear itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.


You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom.


You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people...and you lean not to always take it personally.


You learn that nobody’s punishing you and everything isn’t always somebody’s fault. It’s just life happening. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.


You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.


You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.


Then, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never, ever settle for less than you heart’s desire.


You make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.


You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind.


Finally, with courage in you heart, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can.

My *awakening* - whatever it was - came after:

• Getting married and multiplying fruitfully
• Reading Will Durant's books (all 11!)
• Starting this blog
• Reading the Bible cover-to-cover + annotations
• Discovering John Taylor Gatto and homeschooling

In the absence of a major life event (trauma, tragedy, etc.)....I believe the process, if it ever happens, is generally more gradual than epiphanous.

Of course *really bad people* have strategically forced the lumpen masses to defer adulthood, they've successfully rewritten history, censored Biblical expression, and insidiously enslaved generations through *schools*.

Racist Caption in Boston Globe?

The visual insinuation I infer is that consumers of organic, free-range fried poultry products are categorically responsible for *violence*.

And that's wrong, just plain wrong!

Upping The Dosage For Morons

Last week, up in Moronic Massachusetts, I had to bear two *adults*, medical professionals, wax euphoric about *vaccines*. Seriously. One of them loudly asserted:

"I'm a big believe in vaccines!"

And the other other expressed total agreement. Seriously.

I mentioned that hundreds of kids in Australia supposedly went into convulsions after receiving the pig flu shot. Now what did they think of that?

More importantly, had they even heard of that???

No they hadn't. But one of them had an answer nonetheless, mumbling something about kids *fainting* at the sight of needles. He then asserted that because polio had been eradicated by vaccination....that therefore all vaccines were safe.

Seriously.

Such is sorry intellectual state of Big Medicine and Big Science today - both incurable poisoned by government subsidy.

The big news today is that Big Government is now pushing quadruple-dose flu shots for the most vulnerable Morons.

(NaturalNews) The vaccine industry has now decided that injecting senior citizens with the "standard" vaccine dose just isn't working. (Gee, really?) So now they've decided the way to make it work better is to offer a quadruple viral potency vaccine that packs 400% more viral fragments into one toxic shot.

The target for this quadruple vaccine injection? Senior citizens, of course -- the very people most likely to suffer the most serious side effects from a vaccine overdose. The FDA reportedly approved the new vaccine in April even though no scientific tests have ever been done to show it reduces flu symptoms. Then again, since when did vaccines have anything to do with real science in the first place?

What's especially entertaining about all this is that the FDA's approval of this quadruple potency vaccine is a blatant admission that single-dose vaccines just don't work! Obviously, if the single-dose vaccine was working as advertised, then it would be 100% effective and there would be no need for a double, triple or quadruple-dose vaccine. But all of a sudden, now that the quadruple-dose vaccine is available, the regular single-dose vaccine "isn't good enough."

This is a semi-long video, but it'll grab the open-minded remnant:

Shredding Arguments

Early this morning, my wife just got back from a week-long work trip to South America.

So, being gone a while....we had a lot of arguing and fighting to catch up on. Seriously.

Other than that I've been playing with a certified, pre-owned toy.

My MIL had a nice scanner gathering dust upstairs that I just co-opted.

Not having had a functioning scanner for years (my Dell 3-in-1 printer died early on), I had quite a good time scanning some of my honeymoon pics, annoying business cards, and also some of the homemade math worksheets I've been using with my kids.

Have y'all read - check that - ORDERED that great book yet?

Tim Ferriss talks passionately about *scanning* every piece of paper that comes your way and trashing it on the spot.

Tonight I reclaimed a big chunk of my desk, a most liberating feeling.

You know what I hate?

I hate when my first wife yells something and then leaves the room in an effort to lay claim to the *last word*.

Excuse me while I go track this wily broad down...

See also - Printers = Trash.

Can't Wait To Do Something Like This!

Scat Head-Scratcher, Literally!

Here's a rare insightful YouTube comment:

Massachusetts Milk Nazis

Spraying it at police!

Having the most *schools* and the smallest *private sector*....Massachusetts is our most thoroughly Moronic state. In fact five days after visiting my birthplace, I'm still recovering from hearing my 'old coot' relatives pontificate on current events and whatnot.

Now here's another trophy for the M@sshole mantle:

Fight Over Raw Milk Moves East Amid Charges Of Collusion With Big Dairy

But now that regulators are moving to stem the flow of raw milk in the East, affecting the supplies of Boston lawyers, business owners, and health professionals, as well as even Washington bureaucrats, the situation is moving from fringe to mainstream.

The trigger has been a seemingly small but arbitrary decision by a Massachusetts regulator to restrict consumer access to milk. Unlike Wisconsin, which never officially sanctioned raw milk sales, Massachusetts has long allowed sales from dairy farms, and delivery to consumers by any of a half dozen or more buying clubs.

Everything was working fine in Massachusetts -- more dairy farmers producing ever more raw milk and in the process creating a revival for the state's moribund dairy industry. No illnesses in over a decade.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources seemed to be doing its job of supporting state agriculture by encouraging raw-milk-producing dairy farmers rather than harassing them, like the regulators do in New York state. Late last year, MDAR publicly supported a suburban Boston dairy farmer in his fight with state and local public health authorities and helped him gain approval to sell raw milk from his dairy.

But then something happened early this year to change MDAR's approach. The agency sent cease-and-desist letters to four buying clubs that had been quietly and efficiently delivering raw milk to consumers who didn't want to burn the gasoline or were unable because they don't have cars or even are disabled, to travel the hour or two hours to a dairy farm in central Massachusetts and pick up their milk. (Buying clubs are private businesses that deliver milk from raw dairies on a contractual basis for consumers.) The letters weren't well received by the owners of the buying clubs, and they began mobilizing support from their customers and legislators to challenge MDAR. They argued that Massachusetts laws and regulations don't specifically prohibit the buying clubs, making the cease-and-desist letters so much paper.

MDAR seems to have agreed, because two weeks ago, it proposed a new regulation to explicitly prohibit the buying clubs. The regulation would make Massachusetts the first state in the country to explicitly ban raw milk buying clubs.

And if you click the link above and read the article you'll see that the law was ADMITTEDLY proposed by Big Dairy, seriously!

Okay....Massachusetts has the most flu shots....the least seat belts fastened....they were the first state in 1850 to make *education* compulsory....they still have Puritanical liquor laws....70% of the state voted FOR keeping the state income tax,...

See also:

Raw Food For Thought

Massachusetts - The Dumbest State - QED

Innumerable Idiots Out There

My kids were hysterical laughing at this one:



The dog on the carpet was a big hit - for me too!

As you can see by many of these deliberate *stunts*....it takes a whole lot of planning and preparation to be featured as a top-flight Moron.

Best Self-Reinvention Ever?

So who is this dude?

It's a fella by the name of Josh Waitzkin.

Remember him?

There was movie about him some 17 years ago titled - Searching For Bobby Fischer.

Yes, he was the genius little kid that starting winning national chess championships at age nine.

Guess what...

After chess, he took up Tai Chi and went on to win national and world(!) championships.

The past two days I've been consuming his book - The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance - in which he covers the seemingly disparate endeavors.

OBVIOUSLY, he's one freakish, talented individual so that in and of itself makes his story compelling.

But I was additionally captivated because:

• I have started playing a little chess recently.
• Educating my own, I'm profoundly interested in raising achievers.
• The kid was only 2 years younger than me.
• And he's a native and current NYC'er.

Now the book isn't the best I've ever read - perhaps a little too fruity with his *zen* and whatnot and perhaps more suited towards the genetically-gifted than the self-made - but still, I couldn't put it down.

Theft For Morons

DIY Space Program

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Video from a camera attached to a weather balloon that rose into the upper stratosphere and recorded the blackness of space.

Visit www.brooklynspaceprogram.org for all the info.

Sombrero tip to Taylor for sending me this one - though I had to edit out his unflattering remarks about the boondoggle/sinkhole known as NASA.

Small Brain + Bad Password = Funny Moron

I had to read it a couple of times to appreciate the multi-layered humor.

Golf - A Self-Selecting Endeavor

Let's Guess The Price

I believe last year, before some union concessions, the best bid for the embattled Boston Globe was 0$ - i.e. just an assumption of debt and liabilities. (Recall Newsweek sold for only $1.)

Valuing the Globe is really beyond my skill-set as I simply don't know how ironclad the union contracts are. Though I'm quite sure the paper with the old salaried-journalist model is in fact worthless.

Someone in a comment thread made a remark about the political persuasion of the buying group and that leads me to believe that this prospective buyer is a consortium of new Boston Morons. So I will skew my bet accordingly high.

I say they'll bid $40 million - even though I think it's probably worth more like $15 million, at best.

One note about the salaried-journalist model...

I would write for the Globe from home, in my briefs, if they paid me, say $100 per article for 100 articles over the course of a year. They could offer that ten grand to scores of eager and talented bloggers and aspiring journalists and produce much better content at a fraction of their current costs. They'd save handsomely on healthcare, office rent, technology, etc. I'd gain stature, exposure, even more ego, and I'd drive traffic to my website.

Of course the current management would NEVER do something as *liberal* or as intelligent as this.

And I sincerely doubt the next one will either.

See also:

Boston Globe - Full of Nothing!

Bob Ryan - Defining Joke

Help Me, Please

"Homeschooling" Censored at the Boston Globe

Boston Globe - A New Nadir.

Hard Evidence Smacks Globies In The Face!

Newspapers - There Goes *Internet Growth*

C-Nut's Axe

In the past 18 months, I lost a boatload (or two) of money shorting this insane stock market rally.

However, we moved in with my MIL last May and reduced our living expenses, PLUS my wife landed a raise in coming back to work out of NYC.

So we're doing alright financially for the moment.

But we are in New York now where everything is outrageously expensive - like $36 per hour pre-school drama classes!

Last month I was hit by a crazy $180 ticket for answering my cordless cell phone in my car, in front of an unmarked cruiser.

For a while I thought about fighting it with the goal of, perhaps, getting it halved. Ultimately, I determined that spending two hours(?) in court for a *chance* at saving $90 would never be worth it.

While technically *I* paid the ticket, more accurately it was paid by others.

There were two occasions recently in honor of which we would normally send gifts BUT I instructed my wife to pass this time on both of them.

And I just received the annual plea from my private high school asking for money. For years I've sent them $100 each fall....but, not this year. As I told my wife, "Someone has to pay for my ticket!"

Earning 70 basis points on my cash, $3 a gallon gasoline, 8.625% sales tax, subway and train fare hikes, higher taxes and fees, etc....these days I've got to find some budget cuts - we all do.

I thought, for a second, about using this picture....but my female readership is too high now.

Accidental Horse Whisperer?

Police were called to the Partridge Lane home at 6:15 p.m. The caller reported that an unknown man was touching a horse in a sexual manner and that the horse appeared to be in pain.

Officers found Marian Wegiel in the corral with three horses. He said he had been comforting the horses, which had been scared by a loud noise, and may have accidentally put his fingers inside one of them, police said.

Of the three horses in the corral, it appeared only the female horse had been touched. The homeowner called a veterinarian to examine the horses.

link

Only Way To Beat The Asian Female Golfers!

The story is old - a former man trying to play women's golf - but one particular line in there is hilarious:

"...gender reassignment."

!!!

I've never before heard IT described that way.

See also - The Moron Chromosome.

His Only Funny Line, Ever

First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down.

Hooking Up Essentials - For Time Travelers

Check out - Tips For Single Ladies (1938) - and bemoan how far *courtship* has fallen!

Legally Codified Stunting

With a mid-November birthday, my son, the 5.92 year old Prince, is on the kindergarten/1st grade threshold.

If we stayed in Massachusetts, he'd have missed the *be 5 by September 1st* cut-off date for kindergarten last year. Although here in New York, he'd have just made the November 30th cut-off and been legally eligible for 1st grade this year.

However, almost all parents of boys his age end up *holding them back* a year so they go from the youngest in their class to the oldest. In fact, I don't think I've met a single one yet whose child was born close to the cutoff and opted to NOT HOLD THEM BACK.

Furthermore, I've met plenty of people whose children (mostly boys) were born as early as JULY and have still decided to hold them back a year. And I'm not here in *football country* either - where priority-deficient parents are purposely deferring their kids' education so they will be *that much bigger and stronger on the football field*. (A real phenomena in many parts of America!)

Though even when the parents are relieved of their children (liberated for shopping, yoga, and tennis) another *monumental* choice presents itself:

Half-day kindergarten or full-day kindergarten???

Ooooooooohhhh....don't want to mess up this decision...

Most people I know go for *full-day* even though it might cost money. Hey, if both parents work it's a freakin' no-brainer.

Though, guess what - in Massachusetts anyway, these kindergartens are apparently LEGALLY BOUND to NOT TEACH the full-day students any more than they teach the half-day ones!

So they drag out the full-day with naptime, recess, snacks, and other extra-curricular activities.

See also - BeHold Moronic Little Kids.

More Vindication For Jim Rogers

I believe cotton has been one of his *favorites* all along.

If you check out the posts below, please have some sympathy for me getting shaken out of my commodity *investments* (cotton bought at $61.67!) waaaaaaay too early...

I KNEW they were going up; and I KNEW I had to hold them through some volatility; BUT I just couldn't pull it off.

See also:

Now I'm Officially A Commodities Investor.

More Commodities Meat

Sick and Tired

Having spent all day on the road - from Central Mass to Bridgeport, CT, to Port Jefferson, NY via the ferry, then racing back to Nassau for my son's soccer practice - I'm completely spent!

Plus I'm feeling a little under the weather.

Must be the pig flu, again.

What's going on anyway?  It looks like my site received a lot of *ken lewis* hits today...

Movie Skip - The Town

It's not the worst movie out there, but I found it just barely above average.

And I probably only liked it a little because I have a good friend in Charleston - a yuppie or *toonie*! - so I'm personally very well-acquainted with the neighborhoods where this motion picture was set.

While the casting was good, in terms of inserting realistic Charlestown Massholes....the plot twists were weak, the gunslinging *fantastic*, and the ending was somewhere between weak and borderline terrible.

Affleck float-out failed, if it was his intention, to create a remotely sympathetic hero.

And if that wasn't in his plans, well, he didn't exactly re-create Scarface either - which, BTW, was one of the more over-rated flicks of all-time.

Wall Street 2 - Better Than The Original!

I don't a $hit what the critics or anyone else says...

Wall Street's long awaited sequel, which I just saw tonight, was TERRIFIC!

If you loved the first, you'll really enjoy this one.

I sat there right through the final credits while they played *This Must Be The Place* - probably the first time I've ever done so in my life.

So, why was it sooooo good?

Because, briefly, the motion picture was absolutely teeming with realism!

Watch the trailer here.

I just can't wait to see it again.

Can You Spot The Homeschooled Kid?

My wife and I, and the surrounding parents and Scoutmaster, were completely shocked by how vocal the Prince was, standing up on stage in front of a somewhat filled auditorium. After all, he's our *quiet* one!

I had a notion that he was going to absolutely love Cub Scouts and have so far been proven 100% prescient.

I've always thought it important, and impressive, for a person to be able to get up in front of a room and speak or perform. To that end, we strongly considered enrolling the Prince and the far more expressive Princess in a drama program here in town.

BUT, the $35 per hour (per kid!) New York price tag thwarted our intentions.

Droid Post...

Is it wrong to wander off from my son's Cub Scout meeting in search of blog material in the government elementary school?

UPDATE - I did take that pic in the school hallway and post that line above remotely with my Droid.  Look at Techno-C-Nut!

I'm wondering how necessary a *defibrillator* is, how many they have in the building, and how much they cost taxpayers!

After scouts we jumped into a fully packed car and drove 3.5 hours up I-95, in the rain, to my parents' house.  We are to be made godparents to our niece and nephew tomorrow.  After all, who could possibly be a better spiritual adviser than moi?

Then on Sunday my wife flies to South America to meet with her far-flung staff.  It'll be her first trip down there (engagement ring isn't making the trip!).  I'll be on my own with the kids for a full week. When she's gone I can generally get some quality computer/blogging time.

Eminem - A Class Act!

Who knew?

What a wholesome role model!

I nominate him for 'Father of the Year'...

Not for nuthin, but two teenage girls drove by me yesterday with rap music blasting.

All I heard was the expression *hard d1ck* a couple of times. I don't think it was Eminem, but then again I'm no rap expert.

Now this is rich:

Inflation - Illusions and Delusions

In a couple of months, New Yorkers will get slammed with huge train and subway fare increases.

Using the subway will cost 17% more in January.

And tickets on the commuter rails (Metro North and Long Island Railroad) will jump an average of about 10%.

Recall also that they recently raised the parking fees at my wife's train station outside of Boston; they raised it by $2 a day or $500 for the entire year!

Electricity bills here in NY are already slated to rise 12% over the next 3 years.

Water bills are rising everywhere.

Credit card companies and banks are sliding all sorts of new fees onto their customers.

Property taxes have continued their inexorable rise; as has college tuition.

Health insurance rates are still creeping up AND they are also finding inventive ways to JAM their customers. Recall the $500 co-pay they hit me with for my knee MRI.

Remember when cable TV installation/wiring used to be free? You know, because they were going to recoup that investment in spades, right off the bat?

Well, I had Verizon FiOS expanded here - actually it was already fully installed upstairs - so all I had the guy do was wire (re-wire) one bedroom and drop another router into the basement. Guess what...

THEY CHARGED ME $450!!!

No one, in the course of ordering the expanded service, said a word about *cost*. I just assumed it would be free - as it had been throughout my lifetime.

I'm paying $3.09 a gallon for gas, again.

Also, the cost of *saving* has skyrocketed because money market interest rates are around 75 basis points. In this same vein, the cost of saving for retirement has also INFLATED by 10-20% via the furious bear market stock rally. Think about it. Y'all are investing in the DOW at near 11,000 when you could instead be buying shares closer to 8,000 - where it's inevitably going.

And yet somehow, these reality-inverters stand up and assert:

They have the balls to say there's no inflation!!!

Sure, some things have in fact gone down in price BUT they are mostly in the unnecessary or frivolous categories: iPods, pleasure boats, commercial real estate, Floridian condos, etc.

Bernanke obviously subscribes to the theory that if one going to lie, they may as well tell a REALLY BIG ONE.

See also my post from three years ago - What Inflation? - Soybeans and the Lying CPI.

Gallery O' Mirth