A Great Investment......Me!

I have always worked, taken most any job to survive, feed my family, and pay bills on time. I have been a CEO of two small corporations, a college instructor, and a business analyst for a major software company (see profile). At age 45 I went back to Grad School to work on a M Ed in Instructional Design and a MBA in Management. At age 57 I was laid off from the software company (job went to India). I took a part time job in a bookstore to attempt to make ends meet. It didn't work.....and at age 59, I became homeless and unemployed for over a year, eating in soup kitchens and living in doorways. Even with a Master's Degree, help from vocational rehab, & a few non-profits, I have not had a job interview since 2006 (the book store), so in effect, I have not had a "professional job interview" since the software company in 1999!

Yet, I have not entirely given up. I have many creative skills occluding design, writing, educational software, and organizational research. I however, need a few things to make it all work together....hence the INVESTMENT.

I have a old Dell computer with a 15" monitor, donated by an ad in Craig's List! However, a few disabilities make it very difficult to design anything on a 15" CRT monitor. So if folks were able to invest in ME (even $1 helps), I would like to get the following:

1. a 20" - 23" LCD monitor
2. a graphics tablet and pen
3. a larger hard drive (current one is 8 GB)
4. additional software

I will use the new hardware to desing graphics, write educational courses, and perhaps on-line classes. With much luck, may even get paid for it.

Thank you for reading thisappeal, and any help you may be inclined to give. comments and suggestions also welcome!

Little Dictators Need a Smackdown!

Once again the computer room at the Senior Center is being closed due a Liberal "Senior Lawyer's" anal retentive desires.

There is a perfectly fine, empty office with good lighting and privacy, which I had suggested the lawyer use, rather than hijack the computer room and therefore affecting 5 folks use of the computer. Center management agreed and cleaned the room out for her, but nooooooooo, she need a "round" table and found the office distasteful! So once again the highly negative, vocal minority, gets her selfish way, and five+ seniors have to leave!

I, frankly, am tired of being dictated to by the minority!

Bent, the Hermit

I've gone into Hermit mode. I have to live for one more year to collect Social Security, and it gets more difficult by the day! People annoy me; they make me angry; my mouth wants to say mean things to them; I want to beat them like a baby fur seal!

So Hermit mode is survival mode! Portland, OR is home to more dead brained scumbags then I have ever seen in my life. The walking insane are rude, crude, and obnoxious...and they live in my building! I know of more drug dealers, drunks, and drug users than all the rest of my life put together. In all my years in college, I never knew one! It's disgusting to see 60+ year old "hippies" stoned and drunk out of their minds!

Portland the Liberal La La Land of the NW is proud of it's diversity. I ask myself everyday, "What does diversity do for me?" Not one damn thing! I like white people!

So I have to survive for one more year, when I can once again return to the Northeast, MN, MI, WI, or NY buy a plot of land. build a small cabin, and live s a true hermit, like my Uncle Louie!

“BentnWasted Health Care Plan 2009”

After listening to the mire of multiple federal health care plans, I’ve decided to come up with some suggestions of my own. These “suggestions” rely on common sense, rather than politics or political parties. I call my plan "HealthAid".

According to various statistics in the media, about 46 million Americans have no health insurance coverage. Since the population of the United States is approximately 340 million that makes 14% without insurance…it also means that 86% have it!

Fixing waste, obsolete paper based records, graft, corruption, and over charging of health insurance companies, high malpractice insurance premiums along with frivolous lawsuits and the need for caps on claims and awards, windfall profits of pharmaceutical companies, etc require no 1000+ pages of legislation. In fact, most can probably be cured with an Executive Order. Such “fixes” would not only cost little or nothing to implement, but would save hundreds of billions of dollars/yr.

I believe in most instances health care should be rationed to some extent, in order to keep costs low. Insurance should cover accidents, life threatening disease treatments, pre-existing conditions, basic yearly medicals, vision as well as dental care. Due to overpopulation, it should also cover “Family Planning”.

Basic insurance coverage need not cover routine visits for a common cold or "I feel achy" using the ER as General Care, self-caused injuries and health problems from drug use, alcohol addiction or smoking (which are personal choices and responsibility). Again “common sense” prevails, which also to me implies rationing of treatment in the elderly. The elderly that are over age 75 should not be eligible for organ transplants, massive life extending procedures, or treatments that are expensive, at least as far as insurance coverage is concerned. To be fair, I believe we also have to extend that same rationale to premature infants, coma patients, and severely disabled. I'm not talking about "Death Panels" here, I'm talking about expensive useless care. It’s just common sense.

The “Bentnwasted Plan” would therefore consist of the following:

1. Fix existing problems and inefficiencies in existing programs.
2. Create “Standards” of Health Care with Hospitals, Insurance Companies, Doctors, and other health professionals.
3. Insure the 14% uninsured with basic “catastrophic” health care.
4. Caps on malpractice premiums and awards.
5. Promote “Wellness” with annual checkups.
6. Fund Medicare and Medicaid.
7. Ban all Pharmaceutical advertising on TV, just as tobacco and liquor are currently.


This is not meant to be the “Fix all”, but a start, a method of eliminating the politics and month long/year long debates and trillions of dollars in costs and get on with other issues!

Life Continues at the "Home"

Today after months of doubt, my aprtment is going "smoke free" January 1, 2010. smokers think their rights are being violated, even the ones who have smoke related lung problems. Both of my parents died of smoke related cancers, and I am sure my childhood Asthma was due to second hnd smoke.

We're also going "Green", which may include energy efficient appliances to replace the cheap 15 year old models! New funiture is also in the works, due to bedbug & roach investations in many apartments. In this regard, metal beds from Prison Industries would be good choice!

I don't really care, because I plan on moving back East in the Fall of 2010!

Law and Order....For a Change!

I have never lived anywhere like Portland, Oregon. About the only way anyone gets arrested here is for being caught red handed, with a bloody knife or smoking gun, standing over the corpse!

They have a brand new jail, about five years old, standing empty, never used (Hey it costs money to put crooks away). Transients with unregistered and unvaccinated Pit Bulls, loitering, drug deals on main street, speeding motorists, and more gangs than I ever heard of in Denver or Detroit, yet the police are soft on crime.

Innumerable crooks get off with a slap on the wrist, only to offend again and again. A good excuse for a National "Three Strikes Your Out Law!".

The flaming Liberals here in the NW are soft on crime and cheap on taxes to pay for it. Which explains the gangs, home invasions, murders, fires, and the most transient homeless in any American City. It's time to get these dirt bags off the street and into prison!

President Obama wants "Change"? How about some change with being soft on crime?

Fuddy Duddy Helping Liberals, Oh My!

Watching a local news piece about helping starving orphans in Kenya, I noted that all the "do gooders" were white liberals, trying to save the world. Just a few weeks ago I wondered what makes people want to do good, save the world, and help the poor downtrodden? Now I know...white liberal, affluent Christians, from a similar background!

I also know why I have never felt that way. I have never been a Liberal! Republican and conservative since high school, in the mid 1960's, I despised liberals, hippies, war protesters, peaceniks, save the whale types, all my life! I guess it is also why you never see a Muslim Charity, Asian, or a Republican Conservative say, "I want to make things better for humanity!"

Liberals, like "Soccer Mom's", are something only a few aspire to!

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse

A conservative......oh my!

Last evening, I was sitting on the patio with a few residents of the "Home", when the flaming liberal "building gossip" accused me of being a Conservative Republican! Oh my, what slander!

Hell yes I am a Conservative Republican, and have been for over 40 years. In 1967 I was a "Young Republican" in college working on Nelson Rockefeller's campaign for President. Now I will never be a "my party right or wrong" Republican but I assuredly will never embrace the concepts of Liberalism.

In fact I may be classified as a Radical Conservative, since I believe in world population control, killing the enemy in war vs winning their hearts and minds, fiscal responsibility yet reduce the power of the Federal Reserve, and many other positions, deemed "Radical".

Ever since I was a Political Science major in college, back in 1971, I have always thought that Liberals will kill us all, with their ideals of peace at any price and capitulation to enemies both foreign and domestic!

Another Day, Another Donut

My life currently consists of watching the news and 4 hours of prime TV, sleep for about 7 hours, reading 2-3 books per week, skip breakfast, computer time of about 2-4 hours/day, lunch at the Senior Center, a 45-90 minute nap, cooking dinner (last night was roast chicken, scalloped potatoes, & petite green beans). Then it starts all over.

I have been in Portland for two years and have never gone more than 5 miles from downtown (no car, no bus pass, no money).

Yet I have a 26" TV, stereo, computer, microwave, clothes, a studio apartment with bath, food, and free utilities; all of which I got for free, mostly from dead people's apartments or a mission. It is one step above living in a doorway, but relatively stress free, mostly cause of the medications I take, also free!

It is not the life I envisioned getting my Masters in Education at age 45, nor when I was a Business Analyst at a major financial services company until 2005. Much like working for minimum wage, it is survival, something I do quite well.

In one week I turn 61, and a year later will start getting early retirement at age 62. I look forward to having money again, something I have missed for the last two years. My Section 8, assures me I will only pay 30% of my income for rent, and never again will be paying 80%, as I have in the past!

Life is good, most of the time, even without money!