FACEBOOK AND FRIENDS

Years ago when Facebook was opened up to non-college kids, I signed up (with the "permission" of my kids) so we could exchange photos and greetings.  After a while they stopped using it much and I never did use it for much so I closed the account.  Then last year my high school reunion committee started a page for our year and used it to track people down and communicate about the reunion - so I signed up again.

I have been a little bit more active on FB this time around.  I read it every day or so and post occasionally.  It is a big source of info for my Rodan & Fields consulting and I run across stuff posted by my kids now and again.  There are also things posted by some of the high school contingent which I don't enjoy and have "unfriended" some of the right wing political posters and I'm a bit tired of the posts of grandchildren, random nostalgia from the 60's and 70's and religious stuff.  I think I need to do another "friend" purge.

Do other people do this, too?  Or do you just accept all the friend requests and go along with whatever is posted?  Does it make me intolerant that I am not interested in wading through religious tracts while scrolling through FB?

And what about the girlfriend who broke up with my darling son, broke his heart and is now posting photos of herself with other guys (while still living in his apartment)?  Yeah.  She got unfriended today.  I managed to stay sweet to her for 3 months and now I am done with knowing what she is up to.

On the other hand, this month I learned about 2 of my old friends who are retiring, saw my daughter all dolled up wearing a hat at the race track and got to congratulate another friend for getting her long worked for license to practice as a psychologist. So there is still a lot of value in hanging around on FB. 

LIARS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS

Maybe election cycles are not the time to do this, but I just unfriended someone on Facebook.  I new that she was a Romney supporter and a few weeks back she posted something I considered racist and insulting.

10/8/11 - Bill Bennett at the 2011 Values Voter Summit suggests a bumper sticker about Barack Obama:
"If you voted for him the last time to prove you are not a racist, you must vote against him this time to prove you are not an idiot."

It wasn't just the above quote, it was all done up in a poster.  I decided against commenting and let it go by even though I was incensed.

Then she posted that the Vice President was speaking jibberish in the debate last week. I did not comment on that.

Today I re-posted this:

This is a statement from an earlier post by The Truth of It:

"It doesn't so much bother me that the Romney/Ryan campaign isn't listening to the fact checkers, more so that their supporters are so morally lacking that they have a limitless tolerance for dishonesty. I guess when people can't be honest with themselves, they're not the best judge of honesty in others."

Rob Portman Falsely Claims Unemployment Is Higher Than When Obama Took Office

livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com

Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) inaccurately claimed that unemployment is higher now than when President Obama took office.  
She commented "What an ignorant generalization.  Shame on the author."   I commented back in the heat of my reaction and then unfriended her - not to avoid further comment but because I have lost tolerance for people who attack the media and attack the fact checkers and don't bother to try to get to the truth of things.  People who accept candidates based on their image and look no further for some substance.  Who don't bother to look for the reality behind the spin.  

For instance, why the doesn't the Democratic  party make more of the fact that Romney made the Olympics a success because the government bailed him out?   Yes, his great management of that event was based on getting 10 million or so from congress.

And Bain Capital, his calling card for being such a good businessman?  While not bailed out by taxpayers, per se, bailed out from bankruptcy by a deal with the FDIC.

As a businessman, Romney made avid use of public-private partnerships, something that many conservatives consider to be "corporate welfare."The Cato Institute said the story of the Romney-linked companies is "an example of the government stepping into the marketplace, picking winners and losers, providing profits to business owners and leaving taxpayers stuck with the bill."  An example?  After the pension plan at Bain-controlled GS Steel was underfunded (read raided)  and the company went bankrupt, the federal agency for pension insurance supplied a $44 million bail out. According to Retuers, “records show that the mill's Bain-backed management was confronted several times about the fund's shortfall, which, in the end, required an infusion of funds from the federal Pension Benefits Guarantee Corp.

 Romney personally saved $2.6 million in just one year on a tax loophole that allows wealthy executives at firms like Romney’s to pay a lower tax rate on their income than many middle class workers.  Private equity executives are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings, a rate well below the 35 percent tax on ordinary income. Most of his income comes from distributions by Bain Capital, the private equity firm that he left in 1999 but he still takes the discounted rate.

So - I suppose some people can see a smart businessman who can lead the country - what I see is someone who has taken advantage of what the government has made available in order to get rich and richer. 

So - who is more of a taker?  Someone trying to get back on their feet after losing a job or getting sick or disabled or needing help to make ends meet on their minimum wage job?  Or a "leader" like Mitt Romney?

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Ran across this great photo essay "What if all Olympic sports were photographed like Beach volleyball?" 

2.)  Staying up too late watching the Olympic coverage every night - and making an effort not to see all the spoilers on the internet all day.

3.) Hearing a lot of bad news about Facebook lately. Apparently the people who do the budget projections for the state of California decided that all the new millionaire employees of FB would cash out their stock and get taxed on it boosting the state's income. They certainly bought into the hype. Today the stock price for FB is almost half what it was at the offering and now the projections are dire. The schools will be hard hit, yet again.
Then another article caught my eye - collections agencies are now using Facebook to stalk and harass people. They are contacting the "friends" listed and letting them know that their friend owes money. Nice. A lawsuit is in the works.



4.)  Got a beautiful needlepoint kit last December and have been working on it ever since.  Now that I am nearly done I am obsessed with finishing and have taken it with me to the Friday night Concerts in the Park.  People have seen me working on it all summer and are now commenting on it!

I went out to Cost Plus when they had throw pillows on sale and bought a few to match it. So excited to have it front and center on the sofa!

5.)  The decision at work was to go with a High Deductible Health Care Plan - which I had before and appreciated because the monthly premium was so low.  Not the case with this plan.  It is a $2000. deductible but the premium is still over $1000. a month for my family plan - if we need major care, it's great, covered at 100% once the deductible is met.

So now my "free" physical turned up something in the blood test which requires more tests - not free. So I have been inquiring about the out of pocket cost to me.  I have been inquiring for 2 weeks.  Apparently in the history of this medical group, no one has ever asked for the cost up front.  One department sends me to another for codes, etc.  The doctor doesn't know, the lab doesn't know, the billing office doesn't know.  Yet if I just go in for the tests I am sure they will quickly figure out how much to bill me.  Sigh. Those folks who think we have the best health care system must have some kind of plan I have never had access to.

NO MORE FB FOR ME

 I deactivated my Facebook account.  Not because I spent so much time on it - I barely used it at all.  When I signed up it was so I could see what the kids were up to and I have enjoyed that part.

When I signed up I used my maiden name as well as my married name in case I was being searched out by old friends.  I never did hear from anyone I wasn't in some sort of contact with already.   I occasionally put things up about family and political stuff, but when I looked at it yesterday it was full of ads and stuff from sites I had "liked" for some reason or the other (discounts mostly) and it just bothered me.

The final issue was that I couldn't seem to edit things off the page.  Because I sometimes blog about work, I didn't want my employers name available to match up, just in case someone at work found my blog.  I could not get it to delete anything that was already there.  I could change the status of my employment or stop some people from seeing some stuff, but that isn't what I wanted.  I should be able to control the "about me" info, and couldn't.  Okay, maybe there is a way, but I am not asking for help.  If they make it so difficult to manage my own information, I don't want to participate.

Also, if I don't want unflattering photos of myself on my page, I should be able to delete them - so, okay, vanity played a part, too!