Mindconnection eNL, 2018-09-02

1. Good News

2. Product Highlight

Why is sleep so critical? That was an unanswered question until fairly recently. With the advanced imaging technologies now available, researchers can see inside a living skull. What they found was the answer to how the brain disposes of waste despite being the only area of of the body with no lymph system. It does a kind of backwash using the circulatory system. For this to work, the brain has to go into maintenance mode. Which we call sleep.

We also know that chronic lack of sleep is a major risk factor for many mental illnesses, including Alzeheimer's.

You have to get your rest. Period. Here are a dozen tips to help you do that:

1. Pick a bedtime, and don't deviate from it.
    
2. Stop using an alarm clock as your primary wake-up method. Use it as a backup. Pick a bedtime that is based on how much sleep you need before you must rise in the morning.
    
3. Don't eat processed foods.
    
4. Identify the major stress sources in your life. Then mitigate or eliminate every one of them.
    
5. Make sleep a priority, not an afterthought.
    
6. No phone in the bedroom; sleep takes priority over phone calls, texts, etc.
    
7. Make the bedroom as dark as possible. Window blinds designed for this purpose are worth the investment.
    
8. Do something relaxing before going to bed. Make this a ritual. Have a routine.
    
9. Many couples wait until bedtime to become intimate. This not only degrades the sleep, it also degrades the intimacy. Make the intimacy a daytime priority, not a bedtime afterthought.
    
10. Learn about bedding; there is a lot to it. Then select only the most comfortable bedding (it is not cheap).
     
11. Change your bedding weekly, at the very least. Wash in hot water, and use less than half the recommended laundry detergent. Too much detergent is one of two reasons fabrics don't feel soft. Using a "fabric softener" merely coats the fabric with rancid fat and petrochemicals; never use a "fabric softener" unless your goal is to damage your health.
     
12. Never dry your bedding in a dryer. Let it air dry. Excess heat from the dryer damages the fibers and also causes the fibers to be different thicknesses and lengths within the material. As you may have surmised, drying in the dryer is the second reason fabrics don't feel soft. Use the dryer on its lowest setting for maybe 10 minutes, then run it on tumble dry for a while. Your bedding should still be damp when removed from the dryer. It will air dry in a couple of hours; run the ceiling fan (if you have one) to speed this up.

Many people believe that if they do nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear from any government agency. This is a demonstrably misplaced belief, and a demonstrably dangerous one. I'm going to explain that next, and then tell you how to protect yourself.

How IRS Collections Works

Taking a break from surfing porn and gambling sites at the office (see GAO report on this), an IRS employee decides to totally screw over an innocent taxpayer. Common motives for such a decision are jealousy (employee sees person makes multiples of his own low salary) and cover-up of a previously committed string of felonies (see Kevin Brown's crime spree during his tenure as an IRS boss).

Anything related to increasing federal revenue is not a motive, as is amply demonstrated in the "let's stop Wesley Snipes in his earning prime" project. Nor is fair administration of the Tax Code ever a motive, as is amply demonstrated in countless cases in which criminals like Chuck Rangel got a free pass for obvious tax evasion while innocent people like Bruce De Lotty were totally destroyed over taxes he didn't even owe.

The employee makes a bookkeeping entry called an assessment. The taxpayer is never notified of this. The taxpayer has 90 days to challenge the assessment, and the IRS calls this "due process" when of course it is nothing of the sort.

Perhaps several years pass, then suddenly one day the taxpayer finds his checking account empty and several overdraft charges are on it. He also finds every one of his credit cards is maxed out. This taxpayer made the mistake of paying the US Treasury out of the same account from which he pays his credit cards; that is how the IRS got both that checking account number and the account numbers of his credit cards.

The taxpayer, already reeling from this, gets called into the Personnel Office at work. They inform him his wages have been garnished and because of that they no longer need his services. So there he is with no job, no credit, and massive debt. He decides to make a withdrawal on a mutual fund to help get by until he can figure out what hit him. Then he discovers all that money is gone, too.

Then he receives a Certified Letter from the IRS claiming he owes some fantastically huge amount of money and they are collecting on it.

He calls a tax attorney, who says to gather certain records and come to the office the next day. While the taxpayer is sleeping, he hears noise outside. He finds his car being towed away, courtesy of the IRS.

Of course, it doesn't always happen this way.

Sometimes, the taxpayer is retired and living on a fixed income. IRS garnishes his entire pension, and then reduces his Social Security check to an amount based on an IRS Cost of Living table that has no basis in reality. This retiree lives in a paid-off home. So he goes to the bank to get a home equity line of credit to live on. But neither this bank or any other will give him a line of credit because IRS put a lien on his house.

Actually, IRS put a lien on his Social Security number, and that automatically puts a lien on any assets owned with that SSN. This taxpayer has no collateral, no credit, and only enough income for 3 days of food per month. Fortunately, his lawn has dandelions so he can use the flowers and greens to supplement his 3 days of food per month and stretch it to 5 or 6 days per month.

You can't prevent these kinds of attacks, but you can prevent them from devastating you.

Hold as much of your net worth as possible in at least one LLC with its own EIN and never send any government agency a check drawn on a checking account that you use for any purpose other than paying taxes or depositing government checks. Even better but more costly, a Subchapter S (hereafter, we'll say LLC to mean either).

Yes, IRS will know about that LLC. But it would take them years to attack it, probably longer than the statute of limitations. They usually give up, unless they can prove the LLC is a sham. To prevent the sham issue, read your incorporating state's LLC rules and follow them. Keep non-LLC funds separate, and ensure each LLC has its own business checking account. When signing for the LLC, sign the name of the LLC not your own name. Keep business and personal transactions (and their records) separate.

If IRS cannot prove the LLC is a sham, they would need to prove to a federal judge that the LLC has done something wrong. The sham bar is high enough for them, this other is pretty much insurmountable unless you have been using the LLC to do something they can claim is wrong even if it's not. For example, you're trying to use it to shelter taxes. The little bit you save defeats the purpose of protecting your assets; the ROI just is not there.

Always make sure your Schedule C for your LLC is perfect. If a Subchapter S, it files its own tax return and that also must be perfect.

..and what to do instead.

I've been an active athlete for over 40 years, and am still going strong. This isn't something that just happens. Whether you want to be an athlete or just want to look good and be free from physical infirmities well into old age, you need to train correctly, rest properly, and eat well.

Notice those qualifiers following each verb.

Training mistakes

Many people train, really pouring their heart into it. They start this perhaps in their teens or 20s, but by their 40s they stop. Why?

The most common reason is they are suffering from injuries. Joint pain, tendonitis, back pain, and just general fatigue characterize their days. A trip to the gym causes these issues to flare up, and staying away seems to help. So, no more gym.

Photo taken about one week before 40th High School Class Reunion

But the gym isn't the culprit. Consider these classic mistakes:

Using too much weight. There's an emotional reward for being able to add more weight for a given exercise. And, of course, you don't want other people thinking you're weak.

The problem here is the increase is usually due to cheating on your form. If your goal is to increase the weight you're working with, your mind will find a way. And it's usually counterproductive. Focus instead on putting tension into the muscle and try to do that with as little weight as possible.

Doubling up to catch up on a missed workout. So you missed your back and biceps workout. Why not just do it on chest and triceps day? Answer: Both workouts will stink.

If you miss a workout, you could do it instead of the next one and just be out of the normal rotation until you hit your rest day. That is, you missed so use that day as your rest day and catch up one workout at a time.

Rushing your workout to "fit it in". If you're not going to do it right, why bother? Schedule your training, and make it a priority. If your session takes more than 30 minutes to complete, examine why that is. Do each workout with total focus and total purpose.

Stretching before training. This practice always leads to joint pain. Stretching elongates a muscle, weakening it and thereby exposing the joints to undue stress. Stretch after lifting, not before. 

Bouncing the weights or using momentum. If you "have to" bounce the weight to lift it, you are using too much weight. You are also putting tremendous stress on your joints and connective tissues. This one bad practice is responsible for most of the "old person" injuries that people inaccurately chalk up to getting older.

Resting mistakes

Using an alarm clock. If your sleep is interrupted and/or you don't get enough, your brain cannot be relieved of its waste. This puts you at much higher risk of dementia and other brain disorders, none of which are simply a consequence of age. They are a consequence of years of poor sleep habits. Instead of shortchanging your sleep so that you get up in time to be ready for work (or whatever), set a bed time that permits you to get all the sleep you need and awake naturally in time to be ready for work.

Doing cardio on your "off" days from weight training. Doing cardio at any time is a mistake. But at least if you do it on your training days you'll tend to diminish the quality of your training instead of the quality of your rest. Yes, some light exercise such as a walk is fine. But stay off that treadmill or whatever else you might use to pretend to improve your cardiovascular fitness and burn calories. Accomplish both goals with smart training and proper rest.

Having arguments on (anti)social media. In addition to wasting your limited time on earth, this activity elevates your cortisol (stress hormone). So instead of resting, you are engaging in "fight or flight" and that kills the adaptive response you were trying to get via training. The same dynamic applies in person, too. Try to treat everyone with respect, try to emanate positive energy. Try to associate with positive people, try to avoid negative people.

Eating mistakes

Skipping meals. Say "skip a meal" to most people, and they (mis)understand that to mean skipping breakfast and thus having only two meals per day. If you eat only two meals per day, you are skipping four meals not just one. Eat your six small meals on time, rather than bunch any of them together. This spreads nutrient absorption and calorie intake across the day, in volumes the body is designed to handle.

Eating processed foods. There is no such thing as "moderation" where these "foods" are concerned. They have an immediate and violent effect on your endocrine system. They also cause oxidation (death) of nerve tissue. These "foods" include not just corn syrup, but also fruit juices. Ask an endocrinologist why you should not drink fruit juices.

Following crazy diets. So many harmful diets are based on pseudo-science. The Paleo diet, Keto diet, Atkins diet, etc., all have fatal flaws and are all based on wishful thinking and pseudoscience.

Instead of following some crazy diet, focus on making the "super foods" the foundation for your diet. Not only do these foods boost immunity, fight cancer, promote healthy endocrine function, promote healthy adrenal function, help build bone and muscle, help reduce body fat, and provide many other benefits--they taste great.

As a rule of thumb, aim for 80% of your diet to be produce. That will be fruits of all kinds, eggplant, squash, fruit, bok choy, broccoli, spinach, and other items found in the produce department. If your situation makes it hard for you to work with fresh produce, buy frozen. The other 20% should be things like beans, rice, nuts, and seeds. Don't forget your spices and herbs, as these provide many health benefits and also taste great.

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

Nobody has produced any high school year book photos of Michelle Robinson. This person simply appeared on the scene as an adult. Considerable evidence supports the thesis that Michelle grew up as Michael Robinson.