Mindconnection eNL, 2011-02-20

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In this issue:
Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Product Highlight | Thought for the Day

• Listen to audiobooks, rather than music. Why: Take a close look at what messed up lives performers have. Do you really want their thoughts to be your thoughts? With audiobooks, you can make a learning experience out of common chores. Last fall, I completed several university lecture series while raking leaves.
   
• Read books. These really do develop your mind. The physical changes in the brain are so profound that any competent medical examiner can distinguish between the brain of a reader and a nonreader. A good minimum reading pace is a book a month; try to exceed that mightily.
   
• Focus on nonfiction. Sure, fiction can challenge your mind. But I have found that nonfiction also does that, plus you learn things. Be careful for the "fiction presented as nonfiction," though--there's plenty of poorly researched, just plain wrong garbage being published.
   
• Ignore the mudstream media. Mark Twain said those who read newspapers are not informed; they are disinformed. Thomas Jefferson had similar observations. Today, we have "newspapers" in the form of television, blogs, etc. The form of the disinformation is not what matters; the fact it is disinformation is what matters. Don't let it into your mental space.
   
• Avoid meaningless mindtraps. This includes obsessive texting (I keep my texting to absolute zero) and various online timewasters that claim to be networks for friends or whatever.

The above list has only five items. If you were to survey 30 people at random, odds are that not one of them is doing any of the five. If you do just one, you have a significant mental advantage over the typical person with whom you compete for the income that sustains you. If you do all five, you put your brain on a level that your typical competitor can't even see.

The Federal Govt counts the Social Security funds as an asset. But there are no funds. What they have, instead, is "government bonds" that were simply printed up and placed in the fund.

So they are counting a debt as an asset. The problem is not that the debt simply isn't counted, it's moved to the asset column so that the distortion is doubled. Suppose you did this with your bank ledger. In Quicken, you never enter things in the debit column. So every time you spend anything, you count it as a bank deposit. Then you take this to the bank and expect them to honor it.

But, it gets worse. The bonds are ALSO counted, thus tripling the fraud.

Govt acctg says we are spending and double-saving the same money, which is impossible. A hole and a hill are not the same thing; a hole and two hills are certainly not the same things.

Even with this fraudulent acctg, we have a declared debt of $13 trillion. When corrected, the actual debt is some $200 trillion. That we know of.

This just boggles the mind. So much theft and so much lying about it.

Carrying debt has a cost. Carrying $200 trillion (that's 200 000 000 000 000 dollars) has a staggering cost. Which is why this nation is staggering. And why we feel the pain every time we go to pay for something. And even when we don't. Our debt exceeds the GDP of all nations combined. Its effects are felt in myriad ways, none of them pleasant.

You have two senators and a misrepresentative in CONgress:

• Send each of these folks a short, business-like letter stressing the importance of reducing federal spending. Perhaps identify a program that can be cut or an agency that can be downsized.
• Find out what their spending behavior is. You can get that info from the National Taxpayer's Union, www.ntu.org. Those with a grade of C or lower need to be run out of office. See if there's an organization dedicated to getting your high spender gone in the next "election," and if not then consider starting one. Even if you just start a Website identifying the excess spending of this person, that will help.
• When a stealing, er, I mean spending, bill comes up write a short and business-like letter stating that we can't afford to let this bill pass because we are already so deep in debt.

Even if we ran a trillion dollar budget surplus every year, it would take over three centuries to pay off the debt as it stands now (or, if we could get the interest down to zero then maybe 200) in current dollars. What kind of psychopath sends to CONgress an annual budget with a trillion dollar deficit--going exactly the opposite direction? And which knuckleheads in CONgress approved this disaster of a budget? Not all of them did; you can find out who did what from the National Taxpayer's Union.

This rampant stealing at astronomical levels won't stop on its own. Nor will the financial, social, and other pain it causes.

This rampant stealing at astronomical levels is a root factor in the condition of your own finances. Be sure to speak up against it at any opportunity, and if you don't find an opportunity then make one. Just be civil and factual, so you will be listened to. Confront and criticize the misbehavior, not the person.

This rampant stealing at astronomical levels isn't, as the pundits claim, necessary and unavoidable. The Nordic countries all have little or no debt, low taxes, and a full plate of services for their citizens. So, yes, it is possible to live quite nicely without ramping up more debt than you can pay off in 300 years. Who woulda thunk?

This rampant stealing at astronomical levels needn't occupy all of your thoughts. Schedule a little time to deal with it here and there, rather than think of it all the time. They have stolen your money and that of several generations of any progeny you may have. Don't let them steal your whole life, too.

Shortly after turning 50.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

There are more chickens than people in the world. With Obama in the White House, the US national debt has grown so much that it now exceeds the GDP of all of the people (nations) in the world.

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