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If you think prisons are crowded now, just wait until they start throwing people back into them for not paying their bills! After all, is this not why so many people blindly pay whatever the creditors say? They don’t challenge the charges or the fees or even look into what some of them are, they just pay or suffer the consequences of not paying something they don’t even understand.

Now that I have your attention, no one will throw you in jail unless it’s the IRS you’re not paying. However, you have to know what’s on your credit report and fight it if the charges are not yours or they are wrong. You may say you don’t have money to hire an attorney but what you really need to do first is order your credit report from the three agencies; Trans Union, Experian and Equifax, and look and make sure everything on them is yours. Many people find duplicate charges that can easily be dropped, charges that are really someone else’s like a dad, brother or grandfather with the same name and many other reasons. You clear them up by writing a letter to all three agencies asking them to remove the charges that are not yours and send proof that it is a duplicate charge, etc. Be responsible and take charge of your life!

It’s the perfect time of the year to look for plants to put in your yard and garden for late summer and fall blooming or to buy annuals and plant them to come up next year. Nursery’s are feeling the pinch this year and have stock that they want to get rid of because it’s hard to preserve it throughout the winter unless they have an extensive greenhouse system. For this reason the prices are sometimes deeply discounted and you don’t want to miss an opportunity like this of you are in the market for great plants.

You may want to hire a landscaping consultant to go with you and pick plants that will work in your yard and native environment so you don’t pick up something that sounds great but doesn’t produce like you thought it would. Having someone who is on your side will, in the long term, will be advantageous to your shopping and growing experience. Get the help you need when you need it and not after it becomes a problem.

I have now heard from three different news sources, MSNBC, The Washington Post and PBS Bill Moyer that the health insurance industry that includes the nation’s largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired over 350 former government staff and retired Congress men and women to lobby and help them shape the health care reform legislation. Are these not the same guys who have shaped what we currently have that is not working? And where are they getting the money to pay for all these new hires?

Oh Yeah! They’re getting the money from the premiums we pay them every month; if we can afford to pay them! That’s right they are spend a record breaking $1.4 Million Dollars a day on lobbying alone. That doesn’t include the ad campaign to influence Americans just what it takes to influence Congress. So we are paying for them do what they have been doing to us for the last 40 years, which is to bend over and take it. The good news is; they are creating jobs…

Several days ago I had the privilege of watching Bill Moyers interview former Cigna Executive, Wendell Potter, about his testimony to Congress and as well as his past involvement in managing consumer opinion in regard to the health care debate. I came away from the interview feeling like I had, at last, been exposed to more of the truth of what has been going on in the trenches in this debate for many years.

Mr. Potter is letting us into the backrooms of the health care industry and shinning the light on the subject. One thing that we all know but no one talks about is the fact that for profit companies, and insurance companies are for profit companies, pay more attention to their earnings than the rolls or health of their customers. This is a necessity in order to bring in profits to the company and keep it fiscally healthy. The question is whether we want Wall Street to be the benchmark for care? Is it more important to think about people in terms of how much they cost the bottom line or their health and well being?

It doesn’t matter what side of the argument you are on, this interview is a must see. Again it is Bill Moyer interviewing Wendell Potter, the former head of Public Relations for CIGNA. It is also a great window into the way these large corporations smear those who are exposing certain truths and work behind the scenes through the good old boy network of lobbyist’s and congress. A great study in marketing to the masses.

Four years ago I was in the market for a condo and a Realtor pointed me to several loan officers that I spoke to. I ended up going with Taylor Hill because he took the time to really talk to me about my financial position and what I wanted to accomplish down the road. Everybody else just wanted to take my information and see if I would qualify for the loan. I never felt pressured by Mr. Hill and when I decided to go with a builder he recommended that I talk to the builder’s lender to see if I could get a better rate and deal, which I could but felt really bad using someone else besides him. He just laughed and told me to take the better deal and call him if I ever move again.

Well, I called him three months ago and he was exactly the same. He took care of asking great questions to both me and my fiancé gave us great information and we had a wonderful experience from start to finish. I have sent Mr. Hill several of my friends and highly recommend him to anyone who lives in Tennessee (not sure if he does loans outside of TN). I do know he is a great Nashville loan officer and is the only guy we will ever use or recommend.

Reading through Historical records of America you will find an amazing thread of optimism that runs through the nation like a life giving vein. From the very beginning Americans tend to think things will be better in time. We have a way of turning lemons into lemonade that can’t be matched in any other part of the world. But as of late, I wonder if the rest of the world is creeping in on our American mindset?

Luckily, it seems that Americans are still the cockeyed optimists we have always been. There was an international survey done at the end of 2008 where most of the Europeans surveyed were pessimistic about their financial futures. On the flipside, the majority of Americans were optimistic about their financial futures. I wonder f this is a direct reflection of our immigrant past. Those who have come to America are adventurers and risk takers following their destinies. Maybe that’s why we have done so well; we welcome those who seek a better life and believe together we can achieve more. It’s an attitude of never quitting and being responsible for our lives and what we dare to make of them. America, keep thinking those positive, optimistic thoughts and we will be on our way in no time at all!

One of the biggest killers of dreams is excuses. If you just listen to the people around you, you will start to hear them cascading out of their mouths taking the form from the old standards “I’m too tired” and “I don’t have enough time” to some really creative ones like “I have no clean clothes”. Of course, if you really want to take on a challenge, start listening to yourself!

It’s when you become aware of what is spewing out of your mouth that you will make a decision that will impact the rest of your life; you will either make another excuse as to why you are saying those things or stop with the excuses and dramatically change your life. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s latest book, Excuses Begone! is one of the best books on the subject I have ever read. He lays the groundwork so you are responsible for deciding how you want to live the rest of your life; full of the same old excuses or excuse free.

It’s not an easy road but it is an exciting way to live. No more can you say, “I’m too old” or “I don’t have enough money”. You are responsible to make your life the best it can be or the worst it can be through excuses and justifications. The choice is yours. The question is; what will you do about it?

Hip -hop is now one of the biggest and fastest growing segments of the economy in the world. Its creativity in sound and its lyrics have astonished and attracted many of today’s youth. Some people view hip-hop as just a genre of music, while some view it as the disintegration of the youth culture. There are two main influential sources of hip-hop: music and clothing. Music is the more influential of the two. It is the evangelical device for spreading the spirit of hip-hop abroad.

Some of hip-hop’s most popular songs and musicians have negatively influences youth with their violence, drugs, alcohol, sex disrespect of women. Lyrically, this style of music can create an environment that can become damaging to the lives and education of most youth. Parents teach their children to say no to drugs, but the hip-hoppers to whom the youth look up to proclaim the use of drugs and imply that it is acceptable to use them. As a result, youth will follow the side that has the most influential power to them.

Clothing, another leading aspect of the hip-hop culture, is classified by certain styles. Tight-fitting, low cut, and revealing outfits and gang related clothes are also pushed onto teenagers as stylish clothing choices by the hip-hop marketers. Despite some people’s acceptance, others feel hip-hop lyrics do influence teen’s behaviors and cause indifference toward violence. The corresponding rise in drug use and sexual activity threatens teen safety along with the increase in violence.

There is an expression that “clothing makes a man”. If this is true, what is the clothing marketed by hip hoppers saying about the youth who wear it? The clothing suggests disrespect for authority as well as acceptance of destructive lifestyles. The next time you turn on your iPod and play that song, ask yourself: Are these the messages I want to hear?” Before you dress in your hip-hop style, ask yourself, “Is this the image I want you to portray?” Then ask yourself, “Are the hip-hop marketers laughing on their way to the bank?”

One of my favorite things about Amazon.com is the easy and vast availability of inexpensive used CDs. I’ve picked up treasures recorded by musicians from my formative years in the late 1960s and 1970s, Bollywood soundtracks, jazz classics and hard-to-find recordings by the late singer-songwriters Laura Nyro and Jackson Browne. I’ve also found rare recordings by singer-songwriters who’ve written hits for famous singers. Those are among my favorites. Many of the artists I’m drawn to have penned hits for stars but are often little known to the wider public. The best example I can think of is Nashville-based singer-songwriter Tom Kimmel. I recently bought a live CD of Kimmel’s tunes, Bones, from Amazon. It’s a profoundly exquisite CD, and it costs me all of $1.99. The shipping cost more than the CD. Yes, it was cheap, but Kimmel’s music is golden.

Kimmel’s CD features “The Blue Train,” one of Kimmel’s songs made famous by the vintage folk-rock singer Linda Ronstadt. Other stand out songs are “Hearts are Bound to be Broken,” a tender song about the inevitability of getting hurt in love matters and “Fatherless Son,” a totally heartbreaking portrait of of young man who’s been treated badly and resorts to violence himself. Bones, which was recorded live at Nashville’s world-famous Bluebird Cafe in 2001, is a quiet masterpiece. Since it was recorded live, one can’t ever criticize it for being over-produced. But the acoustics are perfect and the tone is completely authentic. It’s the kind of from-the-heart artistry we used to hear in the early 1970s when Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor were still putting out simply-produced and heartfelt classics that weren’t clutter with too many electric guitars or excessive overdubbing.