When gentrification pisses off an entire neighborhood

Yuppie scum at its finest and most obnoxious, and a few questions:

1. How many of those condo units are affordable?

2. Are the loud booms from old Ironsides ruining people's whoopie making/yoga/debating sessions?

3. If you're here because it's an attractive area, why in blazes do you want to change it without a single shred of consideration for your neighbors, who were here much longer than you've been?

The Fort Hood attacks - who's right, and who's wrong?

I agree with what Hub Blog says here:

Here's a challenge to conservatives:  What specifically would [the mainstream media] do to prevent these types of attacks in the future?  It's put up or shut up time.

On the other hand, I have always been a staunch opponent of political correctness.  You can't simply excuse or wish away violence of any kind, including those attacks that result in death.  I don't agree it's a handmaiden to terror, but more like a way to put rose-colored glasses on unpleasant thoughts or situations.  And sometimes, the rose doesn't hide the horror well enough.

Whipping up emotions is easy.  Finding solutions that may not please the easily offended won't be.

The lump sum option in the Lottery's instant tickets...not a great idea

The Lottery, beginning with this summer's games, are now offering the choice between taking your winnings in installments or being paid out in a lump sum.

For example, if you win $1 million, you can take either 20 payments per year of $50,000 each, or one payment of $650,000.

First, the installments:

• With taxes, at 25% federal and 5% state, you will receive a check for $35,000 per year.  
• Over 20 years, you will receive a total of $700,000.  
• Depending on your tax bracket, you will likely stay within or go up perhaps one or two tax brackets.  For instance, if you're in the 15% tax bracket, you will stay there or increase to either the 25% or 28% tax bracket.

Now, with the lump-sum:

• With taxes, at 25% federal and 5% state, you will receive a one-time check for $455,000.  
• The $650,000 represents 13 annuity checks at $50,000 apiece, meaning you will lose 7 annuity checks at $350,000 for this convenience.  
• Compared with the annuity of 20 checks, the loss will be $245,000 over the period of 20 years ($700,000 - $455,000), or about $12,250 a year.
• Accepting the $650,000 will also put you into the 35% tax bracket for that year, meaning you will likely pay much more in taxes.  For instance, if you're in the 15% tax bracket, you will be in the 35% tax bracket that year - and all taxes are progressive.

The higher the prize, the more you stand to lose.  If you won $10 million, the amounts I mentioned above go up by a factor of 10 - meaning you lose $3.5 million if you take the lump sum and receiving a check for $4,550,000.  On the other hand, taking the 20 checks at $350,000 each means you get $7,000,000.

So your best bet?  Having a steady, albeit, lower winnings check for 20 years is much better than instant gratification and losing a lot more money. 

It's partially correct that the Lottery is a math tax on the stupid - because it takes a stupid person to utter that phrase.

When that 1% lottery commission isn't enough

WBZ-TV did an excellent investigation on Lottery agents who tried to claim huge winnings for themselves.

What was the best scene? Watching the Lottery investigators swoop right in like a drug raid and take out the lottery machine and the lottery tickets. I can imagine the conversation going something like this:

"We had a sting operation not long ago. The undercover agent discovered you had illegally tried to dupe a customer out of their winnings. Effective immediately, we are removing your machine and taking back all of your scratch tickets and electronic forms. Step aside, sir. CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE? IF YOU HAVE ANY TICKETS IN YOUR HANDS, WE'D APPRECIATE YOU GIVING THEM TO THESE OFFICERS. THEY ARE NOT VALID."

The 1% commission in the title refers to the amount a lottery agent receives when they cash a ticket. If, in a book of instant tickets, a lottery agent pays out $726, they get a commission of $7.26. If you win $2.50 on a Keno ticket, the agent gets $0.025. If you win $250,000 on a winning MegaMillions ticket, the agent gets $2,500. Definitely not small change.

When an agent discovers they're not selling enough to get a decent commission, that's when they start to get shady and pull scams. The ones who do quite well with their commissions never try to pull such stunts as

giving you $100 for a $500 ticket

telling you a ticket is a losing ticket when it's actually worth a lot more

and

claiming the illicit winnings and then fleeing the country.

Meanwhile, how can you defend yourself in the first place? (OK, I might as well throw a bone to the finger-waggers who tell us the lottery is evil and preys on the poor. I guess these finger-waggers have no problem having the poor pay 60% taxes on cigarettes and being followed around at Whole Foods for potential shoplifting, right?)

1. If you should hit the Big One, SIGN THE BACK OF THE TICKET IMMEDIATELY.  This means the ticket is yours and yours alone - the "bearer instrument." If the corrupt agent tries to pass off the ticket and the signatures don't match, the Lottery will put up an immediate red flag. They also require positive ID - so if you're Ralph Malph and the ticket is signed Potsie Webber, not only will they not pay you, you have the additional chance of being arrested for forgery and uttering a false document.

2. MAKE A PHOTOCOPY OF THE WINNING TICKET. This means both sides of the ticket (including your signature) should be copied for your records. This will also protect you should the corrupt agent attempt to call you a liar and try to weasel you out of your winnings by stating your ticket "won nothing." Better yet: any ticket over $100 should be photocopied, but claimed at the local Lottery offices.

3. If you've won over $600, YOU MUST CLAIM YOUR WINNINGS AT THE LOTTERY OFFICES. NEVER have the agent scan the ticket at the store - they know exactly what "FILE CLAIM" on a lottery machine means. This is why on scratch tickets, there are random "losing" codes on tickets over $600. (With the two new tickets they've put out, they've doubled the losing codes from 12 to 24, and the new codes thwart players who look for just the codes by putting in really good imposters for the ones between $20 and $500.) Details from the Lottery website here.

4. If you happen to be the unlucky soul who gets $5 when they should have gotten $500, DON'T HESITATE TO CONTACT THE LOTTERY.   If you're ever in doubt, DON'T CASH IN THE TICKET. Don't hand it to the agent, don't let the agent intimidate or sweet-talk you into handing it over. This is a sign to leave the store and contact the Lottery - the best is to contact Lottery Headquarters here (scroll down to Lottery - the phone number to report agents or for general information is below) or, if you prefer email, contact the lottery at webmaster_at_masslottery_dot_com.  Judging by the speed and ferocity of this state agency, Lottery investigators don't take kindly to being cheated.

Many of the lottery agents I've dealt with are fantastic and they are honest. Just remember to be alert, and you should do just fine.

The land of NED - two different journeys

Kate Jackson of the Pointy Universe gives her take on Breast Cancer Awareness month for the Patriot Ledger.

One story I'd like to give Kate is one personal to me. There is one woman on my team at work that was diagnosed with BC in 2004-2005. She is in her late 50s and she went through the same thing. She didn't return to work for two years while she received treatments for breast cancer, but when she did return, it was certainly triumphant. I don't know the staging or extent - none of my business - but she was thrilled to return.

Compared to my father, who died from non-smoking related metastatic lung cancer in 2005, her return gave me hope. Cancer is a devastating diagnosis, but not the end of the world. If detected early enough, the land of NED is reachable (not exactly easy - you have to go through the gauntlet of chemo and radiation first - and that cancer is like the bad guy in The Warriors clinking his bottles and taunting them - "Warriors...come out and play-ay!").

My dad's cancer was detected because he had a nagging leg pain and the bone in his thigh snapped (femur). The day they did a nuclear bone scan did they discover the 3cm tumor in his lung that had metastized to his leg. Instant Stage IV - probably the toughest diagnosis one could get. Not an immediate death sentence, either, as we had him go through six regimens of chemo (Taxol and Cisplatin) and later on, radiation for his brain cancer to follow.

We too thought that a miracle would occur. We had a bottle of inexpensive champagne ready when the doctors would announce he was in that land of NED. Several times, I hoped for a miracle - that not only the tumor in his lung would be eradicated, he'd make a total recovery.

The land of NED, however, had a cruel deviation. When he died on November 22, he was certainly out of the land of constant pain, heavy-duty opiates, and hallucinations, and into a dry martini handed out by St. Peter himself. (Groucho Marx joke spoken by Bugs Bunny.) The day of his funeral, we did indeed drink that champagne we saved as a celebration, not as a goodbye.

To this day, I certainly miss my father. But I never mourned him - maybe cried a little bit, but never sat there and bemoaned his loss. That's because he never would have wanted pity or sadness. He reminds us that nothing is forever, and to make the best of what we have. You have to continue with your lives, even if there are times of loneliness and despair.

We love to use the word "sustainable" as if it were a magic wand, but human lives are impossible to sustain much beyond one's life expectancy. Sure, there are outliers - Willard Scott's bread and butter was announcing centarian's birthdays - but sometimes there are things we can't control, and giving up that control is never easy.

To say that cancer is impossible to beat, however, lies in how willing we are to find its cure. Once it is, all those people, including those with lung cancer, will automatically shift into the land of NED.

Two types of nasty

A. When travelling to New York and purchasing scratch tickets (I collect them from different states), the man behind the counter counted them as $13, while I counted them as $11. Honest mistake - until the megasuperbitch of a district manager snarled at her co-worker to show the cashier how to rectify his mistake. The mistake was corrected, but if you're ever at the Faber in Darien, CT, avoid spending your money there until they get managers who treat their employees and customers with fairness - they don't have to be nice all the time, just not being super surly and nasty.

B. We arrived at the Wooster St Pizzeria in Wallingford, CT around 10 last night for a late repast. We thought the place was open until 11pm, but the manager, who really was a nice woman, said to us, "Oh, the sign says we're open until 11, but we sent everyone else home...we would be glad to make a pizza for you, but we can't. Sorry..." Meanwhile, her staff was watching ESPN, and we headed to the Athenian II diner in Middletown, CT for a much better repast.

The difference between A and B? At least the manager in B was sincere, even though it was a pat, well-prepared answer that I found creepily unnerving. The manager in A? Where did she learn her managerial skills? Leona Helmsley? I will say this much - I'll never step foot in a Faber Travel Shop on I-95 ever again.

Salvador Allende Obama?

Hub Blog has an interesting article on their blog regarding an interesting idea - a future "grand coalition" between the military and President Obama, with the military driving the bus, i.e. making the hard decisions and letting Obama be a "figurehead."

Or, if you want to be more direct, a bloodless coup where the Armed Forces do what Obama is allegedly not doing - protecting America from enemies foreign and domestic. Obama is more comfortable getting the Chicago 2016 Olympics and cozying up to dictators and notsogoodniks. Oh, and raising taxes and redistributing income.

Which leads me to the title of this entry. Salvador Allende was elected the President of Chile in the late 1960s. Which was perfectly fine and legal - as Allende was an avowed Marxist and actually got street cred - until you realize when you give a Marxist power, s/he wants all of it. All was well until the Supreme Court of Chile decided enough was enough and the military deposed Allende in a coup. Allende, seeing his power vanish before his eyes, committed suicide. Thus the democratically elected Marxist was replaced with the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet, who himself had a checkered past - including consolidating power to himself and strictly suppressing speech and freedoms, mixed in with a few "hey, where did Allende's supporters disappear?".

Could a military coup or dictatorship happen here? It's an interesting thought, but a serious one too. If all else in our government ever failed due to disaster or attack, the Armed Forces would have to step in to maintain some semblance of order. There's always the fear of the military or any group in time of crisis taking away the Consitution, the writ of habeas corpus, heavy doses of censorship, etc. Congress would have to take orders from five-star generals and admirals rather than the President. It would be temporary, however, once the chaos lifts and the generals return power to the President.

If Obama is doing a bad job and the military thinks that America is in danger because of his inactivity, then the military should come forward and state their lack of confidence in Obama's ability - and then let Obama defend his positions and schemes.

If Obama cannot, that's a sign of weakness and Obama must decide whether or not he needs better advice - and not from the hard-charging flunkies who want to tax sodas or send Bush's former administration to trial - or he should simply resign with honor, saying "Sorry, guys, I thought I could do it, but I'm just too overwhelmed." It will result in a lot of "I told you so's" from his critics and pleas from his fans to stay (some of which are getting creepily more ardent and fervent by the day), but he will walk away with the respect of the nation.

If Obama stubbornly refuses, or parrots his agenda, then the problem lies either with Obama and his circle of friends, his grand vision for a socialized America, or that someone who has wanted to control America for a long time - perhaps one not of American origin, and certainly one with billions of dollars of influence - is using the weak Obama as a Petri dish, one who they know is as soft as a ripe banana and will appease, agree to get along, and not interfere with their grand vision, and then elect a hard-line dictator of their own to depose Obama.

Thankfully, Obama has one thing up his sleeve that would likely prevent the military from taking over, and that is even though on the surface he seems naive, he isn't. I don't agree with many of his policies, but you also have to remember he's still a politician, and a crafty Chicago machine politician at that. Think about it - he's a wheeler-dealer, a charmer, one who can use his charisma to do things, but on the other hand, he's smart enough not to fall into the collective Borg hive of K Street. Sure, Let's Make a Deal isn't the best way of handling the Middle East, but in private, he's in constant contact with Israel, and surreptitiously getting advice from actual adults (not the petulant and cliquey teenagers that run Congress) on how not to screw up the Middle East.

Obama isn't near Salvador Allende, but if he's not careful, we may find out how we have to keep Joe Biden from inserting his foot into his mouth.