The Smooth Handle

I think the majority of Americans believe that Libertarians are just a crazy extremist wing at the far right of the political spectrum.Oh yeah, and they want to legalize marijuana.

Others associate Libertarianism with the novelist Ayn Rand, a woman who escaped communist Russia and came to America to fulfill all of her capitalist dreams.  Rand made a lot of good points regarding politics in her novels, but she lacked compassion in a fundamental way.  In short, she was unemotional.  She would happily throw to the wolves any person who didn’t give 100% all the time or begged for help instead of working to take care of himself.  I don’t think Libertarians are this harsh on our modern world.

My political views have a lot to do with my upbringing (whose don’t?).  I was raised to believe that no one owes me anything and that I have to earn what I receive.  I should never expect the government to take care of me and the taxes I pay should not go to those who are too lazy to work and want something for free.  The key to happiness and a wealthy life is to work hard, always take the high road, make friends with ethical people, try to help a friend or neighbor who needs it, and to always stand up for what I believe in.

To me, Libertarianism means less bureaucracy, more personal responsibility, and community based charity.  I think it’s a more efficient way to govern.  Trust people to take care of themselves and their neighbors and that’s what they will do.

Is this a pipe dream?  Are people really only out for themselves in our capitalist based economy? Do the greedy outweigh the compassionate in our country?

Tell me your thoughts.

This is a guest post from The Mom.  Enjoy!

I believe Sara and Eric started their blog because sometimes you just have to speak out against idiocy or you will lose your mind. 

In that light, I have some things to say about the health care issues being discussed in this election.

I will preface my remarks by admitting up front that I am a Libertarian at heart who believes in a Constitutional government, but when it comes to providing health care for needy people the lines get fuzzy. Several of my relatives would be dead right now if it weren’t for government help with health care, so that has an impact on my thinking. 

What I don’t understand is the politician’s tendency to focus on health insurance instead of health care.  If the government gets in the health insurance business that would not only be a huge step toward more socialist policies in our country, but it will make the health crisis worse not better. 

With government insurance funds and private insurance funds chasing after a set amount of medical services available, wouldn’t the laws of supply and demand dictate that the price of medical services would go up?  If the government really wants to help with the health care crisis, why not use the laws of supply and demand and common sense to handle the problem? 

Instead of spending trillions on health insurance, why not spend millions offering medical school tuition assistance to those who would be great doctors, nurses, dentists etc. if they could afford the education?  Then you would have a surplus of medical professionals competing for business so the amount and quality of services would increase while the prices would go down.

America is a great country because capitalism works.  Why not let it work for us to save the lives of Americans?

Over the weekend Sara and I were lucky enough to stumble upon two amazing restaurants that really proved why you should expand your horizon beyond the traditional chain eateries that plague most of suburbia. The first was called Pasha Restaurant  which is Turkish cuisine that is kinda like greek food but with a bit of a twist, and the second was Peruvian food from Imperio Inca which had fairly good prices and outdoor seating (always a plus on nice days).

(Inca Ceviche. mmmmm.)

Probably my favorite restaurant of all time was found on an awesome site called Holly Eats .  There i was introduced to the scariest looking place on the planet called Bowen’s Island Restaurant. This place is more than a little intimidating on the outside, but the food is well worth it if you can get through the door.

Once your inside, the atmosphere is absolutely crazy…

Oh yeah, and this is the guy who serves you oysters. It doesn’t get any better than having your food served to you from a shovel; no really, they drop your oysters onto the table from a snow shovel, its awesome.

So the whole reason i wrote this is because i love eating at these crazy kinds of places, but they are always much smaller and harder to find. If you have any suggestions of where to go in your area, a place that you always want to take your relatives because you know it will freak them out, or just a smaller restaurant that needs some help competing with the big chains, let us know, i’m willing to try anything once ~

I’ve got Eric and myself on another exercise kick.  During the winter we did yoga for about a month, and then in the spring, we went for daily walks for a few weeks, then those faded to us laying around the house watching TV because it was just too darn hot (and smokey) to go outside. 

But I think this one will stick.  Mostly because it’s not intended to last that long.  And the exercise itself doesn’t take more than thirty minutes a week.

Last week at GetFitSlowly, JD posted about a program called “100 Pushups.”  He decided to give it a try and, after a lot of me pushing and prodding Eric, so did we!

Basically, it’s a seven week program where you go from being able to do not that many pushups to being able to do one hundred consecutively. 

My inital test was pretty sad.  I could barely do two.  But, I’ve finished the first week of the program and am now able to do seven!  In a row!  That’s right.  My weak, girly arms can do seven whole pushups now. 

Eric, having immense upper body strength, started out being able to do about fifteen, but can now do more than twenty. 

So, do you think you can do it?  It might take me a little more than seven weeks, but I’m definitely going to try. 

The big day is fast approaching for Eric and myself.  Soon we’ll be legally bound and more inseparable than we already are.

We’ve already scheduled our honeymoon in SanFrancisco thanks in no small part to my parents and auntie.  We’re planning all sorts of touristy things like seeing the giant redwoods and taking a tour of wine country and going to Fisherman’s Wharf.

But I’m really excited about a trip outside of the city for a couple of days to a nice resort where we can sit by a fire pit and look at the huge and cold Pacific while sipping on wine and talking about the great time we had.

What was a favorite part of your honeymoon?  What should Eric and I do to make our vacation as romantic as possible?  Any ideas?

You may not know this, but I’m a huge geek when it comes to personal finance. I actually thrive on figuring out how to make things more economical. I’m a penny pincher in the (I hope) best sense of the words.

So, I thought I’d share one of my nerdy math tricks with you on how to make it seem like I’m making more money than I actually am. This will only work if you’re on a biweekly pay schedule though.

I get paid every two weeks, equaling 26 paychecks per year, which means that for most of the year (10 months to be exact), I only get paid twice per month. Therefore, it makes sense to work out a monthly budget based on my take-home pay for two paychecks. So, 2 paychecks times 12 months equals 24 paychecks.

However, there are two months where I get three paychecks. This year, it’s May and November.

Voila! I’ve already gotten paid twice in May which covers all my monthly expenses. The next paycheck is completely free to spend however I wish.

In other words: Bonus!

I could put some money in my Roth IRA, or contribute to my honeymoon fund, or go shopping for some thrifty but cute summer clothes, or put the money toward Eric’s and my house purchase later this year. Most likely, I will divide it up between all of these things.

Pretty neat, huh?

Sometimes it pays to be a thrifty number cruncher.

Thomas Jefferson once said something along the lines of “I like a little rebellion now and then.”  I can’t remember if he was talking about America’s Whiskey Rebellion or The French Revolution, but he certainly lived in tumultuous times and enjoyed it.

Jefferson also believed that the Constitution should be thrown out and rewritten every 19 years because the rules and laws of previous generations don’t always work and fit with current situations.

For example, no matter who I converse with about politics, I haven’t talked to anyone who is happy with the way things are currently going, especially concerning this year’s presidential election.  Each of the candidates seems to be a bit too polarizing to win over the majority of the country, so much so that there are people considering abstaining from voting as a protest until someone they actually like comes along. 

The rest, it seems, are just going to vote for the lesser of evils. 

While I realize that politics has always been more about obtaining power and not so much about being compelled to perform your civic duty, how are voters supposed to be represented if there isn’t a candidate running who shares their ideas and beliefs? 

Is it time to throw out the two-party system and start something new?

Or should we just wait it out in hopes that the next time will be better while continuing to see our country go in the wrong direction?  Do we get more involved in local politics to make a difference in our community? 

Do you even think our political system could use a revamping?  Or are you ready for some rebellion?

As I was waking up in the shower this morning, I happened to read my philosophy shampoo bottle. It’s a 3-in-1 product that claims to work as a shampoo, body wash, and bubble bath. It also smells like chocolate mints, is dark brown, and looks like your not getting clean at all when you use it, even though the scent is quite pleasant.

Anyhow, Philosophy bottles are known for having recipes printed on them, ie: the Cinnamon Buns 3-in-1 has a recipe for edible Cinnamon Buns. I know, it’s a huge jump.

However, the Frango Mint bottle actually has a daily diet for you to follow.

First, shower with Frango Mint 3-in-1 shampoo and body wash, of course.
Next, eat mostly proteins for breakfast and lunch and avoid carbohydrates until dinner.
Third, do just 10 minutes of vigorous exercise per day like dancing to your favorite music (their words, not mine), walking, or doing some push ups.
Lastly, eat whatever you want for dinner as long as it’s light and you don’t eat too much (which means eat whatever you want as long as it’s a salad) and follow that with two Frango Mints, the real chocolate ones.

Following this diet from the shampoo bottle is supposed to help you lose 1-2 pounds per week, assuming you need to lose weight. And we know that every American needs to lose weight. It’s just a given.

I’m not sure what perplexes me more: finding actual diet tips on my minty-chocolately shampoo, or the realization that there are people who have probably tried this diet on a bottle because it means they get to shower in and eat chocolate every day.

Do you think this diet is worth a shot? Would you try it? Do you trust the all knowing, all cleaning philosophy 3-in-1 product to help you get fit and healthy?

Have you found any other miraculous claims on your cleaning products?
Or are you too busy actually showering to pick up on the subtle advertising that surrounds you in the tub?

How do you use the internet?

This may seem like a silly question, but what we’re about to tell you will change the way you receive and access information online. Seriously.

So, how do you use the internet? Most people have a variety of news pages they like to go to, such as Yahoo! , CNN, or maybe some of the blogs such as Get Rich Slowly and Political Base. On top of that you have social networks like Myspace and Digg. But then you also have online e-mail programs and calendars and … well, you get the point. There is a plethora of information on the web that you want to look at every day.

The problem is that this information you want to access is scattered all over the place. Every time you want to visit a page or use one of your online services, you need to go to your bookmarks (which most likely aren’t synced between your work and home computer) or you have to type in the web address or go to Google to find it. What a pain.

Well, it was a pain until a little while ago. Thanks to the awesome ingenuity of Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, combined with an application called Netvibes.

Netvibes allows you to set up a free account and pull all of the pages you go to separately on to one page. Instead of getting lost in the tangled and unorganized world wide web, you can spin your own and tailor the site to your interests.

Plus, there are very helpful organizational tabs that you can label whatever you want. For instance, I have a “Money” tab that features blogs and feeds from Get Rich Slowly, Savvy Sugar, Investopedia, and Yahoo! Finance.

My other tabs include “News & Politics”, “Food & Recipes”, and “Work” just to name a few. You can add your Google Calendar to your page. The local weather forecast. Your favorite cats in sinks site.

And the best part: Netvibes updates itself so you are always on top of the information you want. You don’t have to check MeanDawg every day to see if they’ve updated their podcast. You can just get the update when they release the show. And you don’t even have to leave Netvibes! You can listen to the show there!

This is not a paid advertisement from Netvibes. We just really like it. There are other RSS aggregating websites out there. Also, we read an article somewhere that says that only about 7% of internet users are familiar with and use RSS. We’re just trying to spread the good word and help you use the internet to the best of its ability.

So get out there are start getting those feeds! Go to Netvibes, set up an account, and then click in the top left-hand corner “Add Content” and find the feeds and sites you want. Trust me, it’s innovative and it’s smart. In a word: Awesome.

By the way, you can add The Smooth Handle too.

I’ve been really looking forward to spring coming and the warm weather along with it. 

Unfortunately, most of April so far has been cloudy, rainy, and pretty cold.  The few spots of sunshine are definitely a highlight to my days.  But mostly I feel tired, damp, and cold; sort of like an abandoned alley cat.

To top it off,  my coworkers are getting sick.  Some have allergies and can’t stop sneezing.  Others have smokers’ coughs that just won’t get better.  And another one got the flu last week and took two sick days. 

I’m a fairly healthy person, so the only problem I’ve had are pretty crappy sinus headaches from the impending rain of doom, which make me an utter joy to be around until they subside.

Any tips on what to do to avoid getting sick or to try to keep my spirits up?  I’m hoping this is the low point, but if it isn’t, should I get a sun lamp to sit under or something?