Well, no one can claim the hundred gallons of gas that I offered last time. Don’t you guys ever listen to the news? The answer to last week’s puzzler is: Olivia Newton-John. I bet even Google could have told you that. Oh well, I’ll have to use all that gas myself. I’ll use it in my scooter to get the most use out of it. It won’t be long before the gas prices will soar once again. I think that the politicians will use the gas situation to try to fool people into voting for them. They will keep lying up until after the elections, then we’ll get crunched again with higher taxes. This will increase the price of gas to over five bucks a gallon. This is just a guess, it might go higher than that. You see, politicians don’t have to worry about how the little folks are suffering “out there” because whoever is in office gets all their living expenses for nothing. Can you just imagine the presidential limo checking gas prices to find the cheapest gas station? Yeah, I’m laughing too. Actually, the Washington politicians have a great gig. They get all the goodies while they are in office, and then they get all their benefits, sometimes their full salary too, for the rest of their lives. What about the little folks? Oh yeah, they have to struggle with downsizing, job losses, higher taxes, higher prices on food, clothing, schooling, etc. The benefits? Who has a great benefit package these days? No one. How many times have you heard about people being fired (or, downsized) when they have nineteen years in the company? If they made their twenty year goal, they could retire with a benefit package to help pay for medical, food, etc. No doubt about it, the job market these days is all about paranoia; no one gets comfortable in a job these days because you never know when the axe will fall. And, you never know what criteria are going to be used to fire you. Gone are the days when you could do a good job for the company, display loyalty, go the extra mile, and take a real interest in the job. In times past a person was recognized and rewarded for having a good attitude, possessing and displaying their talents, and taking initiative. In the old days virtue meant something. Today, none of these things matter. If you have a job today, great, but you are always worried about tomorrow; there is no future to look forward to in this society anymore.

Pensions? Does anyone even know what a pension is? The last time I heard of a common worker getting a pension was in the generation before mine. If you put your time in (usually twenty, or more, years) you could count on a partial salary for the rest of your days. You could also get social security and you could work if you so desired. These days, the government has stolen the money from the social security fund and they have raised the age at which you can receive benefits. It used to be age sixty-five for everyone to get full benefits, now the age gets progressively higher. Most people in the work force now will have to wait until they are sixty-seven. But, according to the government, the social security will be gone by about 2038. And before that time, they plan on reducing payments to try to stretch out the remaining money. Sure isn’t a good feeling to know that you have worked for many years, paid into social security, paid all your taxes, have been loyal to your company, and then you can’t look forward to anything during retirement. It is a sad situation that most people today, knowing the aforementioned facts, realize that they cannot “retire” in the normal sense of the word. Most folks will work until they expire. As the old adage goes: Life sucks, then you die.

Many thanks to the folks who made comments last time. How come there are not more people commenting? Maybe it is the type of subject matter that I present. I wonder what type of subjects would get more people commenting. I know that questions and contests don’t draw much, because if they did, everyone would be getting great firewood, cash, and free gas. Without some sort of comments one gets the impression that they are speaking into outer space. The blog is just going out into the void of nothingness. Maybe, in a few light years, the blog will hit something out there and a response will come back. Oh, but that would mean that it would have to be deflected exactly in this direction. What if it were angled a tiny bit and the return message (comment) missed us by an inch? A cosmic inch. Maybe the moon would be in the right position to intercept the transmission. I think we should get a mirror up on the moon so that we can reflect these “comment beams” back to us so that we can “recomment”. Just a thought.

Yes, there are recordings by me that might be able to be heard on the internet. I don’t know how to put them on the machine; I’ll have to ask my wife to do that. But, I sense a danger here. I see that some of you folks out there can only contact the world by computer. This is dangerous. It would appear as if you have been cocooned and that the only way to communicate is through the internet. Even if you just watch more movies and get some time away from the computer, you would at least have some entertaining input instead of a steady diet of watered down, homogenized prattle that may or may not have any relevance for life. There is far more misinformation than good information on the net. Trying to cull out good from bad is a daunting task at best, and very much stress producing. And, lest you think that I am the lone voice in the universe espousing these views, I can recommend some reading material by some eloquent scholars who issue the same warnings. There are even psychotherapists who have specialized in their practices in trying to treat the addictions of the “net”. This subject is also addressed in psychology textbooks so that students who enter the profession will be apprised of the situation before they see it in their future clients. In fact, there is a short book on the market right now that speaks to the problems of stress and its management. It is called: Welcome to Stress Management by Dr. Richard F. Marsella. Though not entirely directed toward the computer or the internet, this easy to read book gives many suggestions for stress reduction as well as a thorough definition of stress. The book is in the major bookstores, or you can contact me since I am very knowledgeable about this erudite scholar and his writings.

I look forward to the many comments that will speak about the subjects mentioned here. Until I get more feedback, I dare not give out the next puzzler; I might get the answer to my question from some far off galaxy several light years away. How would I deliver any great firewood prize that far out? And, how would I know that the entity who answered correctly uses any firewood? Such a dilemma! So says Sam Post.