Thursday Night Tunes

WNED Sucks.

Several times a year, the local PBS station decides to stop it's regular programming in order to agonize and harangue Viewers Like Me into shelling even more dollars into the black hole known as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They start by airing mediocre concert performances, trotting out a never ending stream of flops from the 60s that I didn't care about the first time I heard them as a kid. Instead of tuning in to find Poirot or New Tricks , there's an assortment of blatherers, waxing nostalgic over Jon "Bowzer" Bauman or Ronnie Spector. 

Taxpayers regularly donate to PBS, albeit involuntarily :

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting(CPB) is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting. Historically, 15~20% of the aggregate revenues of all public broadcasting stations have been funded from federal sources, principally through the CPB.

More from Wiki:

The CPB’s annual budget is composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds For fiscal year 2010, its appropriation was US $422 million (including $2 million in interest earned). The distribution of these funds was as follows:

•         $21.0 million (a maximum of 5% of the total budget) for CPB administrative costs

•          $25.2 million (a maximum of 6% of the total budget) for funds to support the Public Broadcasting Service generally, as opposed to specific stations.

•          $281.85 million (66.8% of the total budget) for public television, distributed as:         

~$210.26 million as grants to individual public television stations         

~$71.59 million for public television programming        

• $93.94 million (22.3% of total budget) for public radio, distributed as:        

~$65.41 million as grants to individual public radio stations         

~$21.74 million as grants for radio programming acquisition         

~$6.79 million for public radio programming

Ever notice the sponsor credits that roll at the end of PBS programs? Here are but a few:

•  Dept of Education
•  Dept of Transportation
•  National Science Foundation
•  National Endowment for the Arts
•  US Army 

So go ahead, watch As Time Goes By or MI-5 without guilt, you have paid for much of this programming already.

After you've gotten reacquainted with Sha Na Na.

Funding for this blog is provided by public television viewers with additional support from contributors to The CryBreaffa! Trust, created to help ensure the blog's future.

Violent crime falls again: why some experts are 'stumped'

Headline Haiku 

Cop techniques improved

More indoor crimes committed

Suffer the children

So let's see...

How do we rid ourselves of toxic people and energy in our lives? It helps to rely on that inner voice I spoke about earlier. The one that says "I'm done with feeling this way and I'm done with the people who are responsible for it". I refuse to be a part of anyone's own private hell anymore. I refuse to shoulder any responsibility or work of those that haven't the character nor the fortitude to do it for themselves. I rise up high above any situations that don't honor or respect me as the decent human being God made me. I am done.

Faith, Hope and all that

How do you know when you have found your faith and can begin to look forward with hope? It comes after many years of grappling with the same thought patterns and then all of the sudden something just clicks. It's as though you've outgrown all of those tired messages your mind has played over since you were old enough to think. Time to try something new on. I'm tired of feeling inferior and unworthy and inconsequential. Tired. So it's time for a new trick. It's taken me quite a while to get here and I realize that this journey is part of my soul's path. Why? I'm not sure yet. But I am grateful for the opportunity to have come this far and am only starting to count my blessings as outweighing my negatives. That's exhilarating.  And life affirming. I think I'll stop for now and just savor the moment.

Wise words: Money Pearls

Money Pearls: 12 Personal Finance Best Practices

1. Bless your bills; love your responsibilities. Your mortgage, your car payment, your kid’s school tuition… All the things you “have to pay for” are also evidence of your level of participation in the world, the by-products of past success, and your present/future ability to provide for yourself and those you love.

2. Stop blaming materialism for soullessness. If your Things don’t have meaning it may be your own lack of imagination.

3. Be conscious about your finances. Even if the truth is ugly and it’s absolutely painful — know your bank account balances; know where, when, how, and why you spend money. You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge.

4. Pick a Pretend Zero. What do need to feel financially safe enough to at least breathe without hyperventilating? Is it three months worth of living expenses in a savings account? Is it six months worth of salary? Is it a goal number in your 401K? Is it to always have $2000 in your checking account? Behave as if that number IS Rock Bottom.

5. Upgrade your income without upgrading your lifestyle. Perhaps the wisest practice of all…Create more wealth than you need to; spend less than you want to.

6. Do not think and never say “I cannot afford it.” Instead, ask “How can I afford it?” or “What can I do to afford it?”

7. Poverty of the mind is a decision. “This card is approved” and “This card is declined” have the exact same number of letters. These extremely opposing statements take up the same amount of space. It takes the same amount of time and energy just to visualize either one… Which message will you choose to work with?

8. Learn how to discern when your urge to consume is a sedative for your desire to create. You’re either consuming or contributing. Both are fine — you should occupy both roles. Just be a Creator/Contributor more often.

9. Don’t try to force yourself to create when you’re stressed about finances. Money may not be able to buy happiness or a sense of self worth but it does buy me the freedom to create — and creating is one of my sources of self-esteem and fulfillment (not to mention, more income).

10. Get rid of unrealistic (short-term) time frames. Wherever you can, throw them away. Financial expectations that revolve around narrowly-defined time frames, deadlines, and milestones make the perfect armatures for disappointment and sabotaging self-criticism.

11. Give. Be generous. You can’t receive money with a closed fist. (I think this is an Oprahism.)

12. Get real. Solve “real world” third-dimensional problems with practical third-dimensional solutions. If your car breaks down, you don’t stand on the side
of the road and “meditate” about it — you hire a mechanic to fix it.

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