Friday, January 15, 2010

An Eternal Perspective

An Eternal Perspective-Living A Life That Matters Author Unknown
Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame & temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, & jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, & to-do lists will expire.
The wins & losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived…at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?

How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What’ll matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is-not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What’ll matter is how long you’ll be remembered, by whom & for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.

It's not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Everything I need to know about life,

Everything I need to know about life, I learned from Noah's Ark...

1. Don't miss the boat.
2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Stay fit. When you're 600, some one may ask u to do something really big.
5. Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that has to be done.

6. Build your future on high ground.
7. For- safety's sake, travel in pairs.
8. Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
9. When you're stressed, float a while.
10. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

11. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.
NOW, wasn't that nice? Pass it along and make someone else smile, too.

THE FOLLOWING IS A CHINESE GOOD LUCK TANTRA TOTEM.
U may not believe this but the advice is great! Read all the way down, u may discover something new!!

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Marry someone u love to talk to. As u age, her conversation skills will be as important as any other.
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, "I love you," mean it.
5. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.

6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
9. Love deeply & passionately. U may get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. Please No name calling.

11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
12. Talk slowly, but think quickly.
13. When someone asks u a question u don't-want to answer smile & ask, "Why do u want to know?"
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
15. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

16. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
17. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; Responsibility for all your actions.
18. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
19. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

21. Spend some time alone.

Now, here's the FUN part! This tantra totem has been sent to you for good luck. It has been sent around the world 11X so far. U will receive good luck within four days of relaying this tantra totem. Send copies to people u think highly of. Don't send money as fate has no price. Do not keep this message.

The tantra totem must leave your hands in 96 hours. You will get a very pleasant surprise.

This is true, even if you are not superstitious. Send this to at least 5 people and your life will improve.

0-4 people: Your life will improve slightly. 5-9 people: Your life will improve to your liking.

9-14 people: U’ll have at least 5 surprises in the next 3 weeks. 15 & above: Your life will improve drastically!!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

How Hitler took Austria

1938 Austria--Land of "The Sound of Music" Story

Kitty Werthmann spoke at the Eagle Forum national conference a couple of months back. She told a powerful story about what it was like growing up under Hitler.
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away

By: Kitty Werthmann
What I am about to say is something u probably never heard or will ever read in history books.

I believe I'm an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks & guns; it'd distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks & took Austria by force.

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly a third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation & bank loan interest rates.

Farmers & business people declared bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. My mom was a Christian & believed in helping the needy. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup & baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.

The Communist & the National Socialist Parties were fighting each other. Blocks & blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz, & Graz were destroyed. People became desperate & petitioned the gov't. to let them pick a government.

We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, & had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group, Jews or otherwise. We were led to believe everyone was happy. We wanted that in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment & help for the family. Hitler also said businesses would be assisted, & farmers would get their farms back. 98% of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany & have Hitler rule.

We were overjoyed, & for three days we danced in the streets & had candlelight parades. The new gov't. opened up big field kitchens & everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were appointed, & like a miracle, we suddenly had law & order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated to retain the jobs they were previously required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education – Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good, public-school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout, woman, stood up & told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” & had gym.

Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were displeased with the sudden change in curriculum. They were told if they didn't send us, they'd receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they'd be fined $300, the third time they'd be jailed. The first two hours were political indoctrination. The rest of the day was sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun & got our sports equipment free. We went home & gleefully told our parents about the wonderful time we had.

My mom was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school & put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that & she told me someday when I grew up, I'd be grateful. There was a very good, curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, & no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt it tolerable. On holidays I went home & back to my old friends & ask what's up. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home: In 1939, the war started & a food bank was established. All food was rationed & could only be purchased via food stamps. At the same time, a f/t employment law was passed. It meant if u didn’t work, u didn’t get a ration card, & if u didn’t have a card, u starved. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills & often had to take jobs more suited for men.

Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male & female, to give a year to the labor corps.

During the day, the girls worked on the farms, & at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners & participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family & friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps & military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare: When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. U could take your kids 4 weeks to school age & leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls: Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the U. of Vienna. After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for all. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, people went to the drs. for everything. When the dr. arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were waiting. The hospitals were simultanously full. If u needed elective surgery, u had to wait a year or two. There was no $ for research. It was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the med schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria & emigrated to other countries.

As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a 1K gov't. loan to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care & ed. were free. High schools were taken over by the government & college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, & housing.

We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant with square tables. Government officials said he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners & he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar & he couldn’t meet the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses & few small ones existed, it'd be in control.

We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop & what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce & how.

“Mercy Killing” Redefined: In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried & offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful & did good manual work. I knew one, Vincent, very well. He was the school janitor. One day I looked out the window & saw Vincent & others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Dept. teaches them a trade, & literacy. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program & might cause homesickness.

As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died naturally & mercifully. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health & all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws: Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding & dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests & ministers who spoke up.

Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years: 1938 till 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.

After WW II, Russian troops occupied Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, & what they couldn’t destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn’t,"paid the price".

There's a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by Russians. This is an eye witness account.

“It’s true….those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom & opportunity.

America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away!
"After America, There is No Place to Go!"

Stimulus payment

Stimulus payment

What to do when you get your check?

Just in Case You are a Senior and Get a Check for $250...

By end of this year, we seniors will again receive an Economic Stimulus payment. This is a very exciting program. I'll explain it using the Q and A format:

------------ --------- ---------
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus payment?
A. It is $ Uncle Sam sends taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get the $?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own $?
A. Only a smidgen.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is for u to buy a high-def TV to stimulate the economy.
Q. But isn't that stimulating Asia's economy?
A. Shut up or u won't get your check.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

1. Spend it at Wal-Mart, it'll go to China.
2. Spend it on gas & it'll go to Saudi Arabia.
3. Buy a computer, it'll go to India.
4. Buy fruit & veges, it'll go to Mexico, Honduras or Guatemala.
5. Buy a car, it'll go to Japan or Korea.
6. Buy useless plastic stuff, it'll go to Taiwan.
7. Pay off credit cards, or buy stock, it'll go to management bonuses & hidden in offshore accounts.

Or, you can keep the money in America by:
1. Spending it at yard sales or flea markets, or
2. Going to baseball or football games, or
3. Hiring prostitutes, or
4. Buying cheap beer or
5. Getting tattoos.

These are the only wholly-American- owned businesses still operating in the US.

Conclusion:

The best way to stimulate the economy is go to a ball game with a prostitute that u met at a yard sale & drink beer all day until u are drunk enough to go get tattooed.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Start of Dentistry acknowledging Flouride is bad

The beginning of Dentistry acknowledging that Flouride is unhealthy.
Sunday, January 10, 2010 11:12 PM

An important peer reviewed study published in the October 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association confirms previous research showing that infants fed formula milk in areas where the water is fluoridated at 1.0 ppm will receive excess fluoride putting them at risk of fluorosis (Siew, C et al. J Am Dent Assoc 2009; 140: 1228-1236).

The authors conclude that "When powdered or liquid concentrate infant formulas are the primary source of nutrition, some infants are likely to exceed the recommended fluoride upper limit if the formula is reconstituted with water containing 1.0 ppm fluoride".

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Gubmint and How Gubmint Works

Gubmint and How Gubmint Works

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they hired a night watchman.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they hired a planning department & hired two people, one to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks right?" So they created a Quality Control department & hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How do we pay them?" So they hired a time keeper, & payroll officer.

Then Congress said, "Who'll be accountable for all of them?"
So they created an administrative section & hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, & Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are 18K over budget, we must cutback."

So they laid off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPT. OF ENERGY.... during the Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line. We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready??
It was very simple...and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8-04-1977.
TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2009 -- 32 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WAS I THINKING?"

Ah, yes -- good ole bureaucracy.

AND, NOW, WE ARE GOING TO TURN THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?
HELLOOO! Anybody Home?

A side of Jewish history you may have missed.

This is a side of Jewish history you may have missed.

There are few excuses for the behavior of Jewish gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s. The best known Jewish gangsters - Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Longy Zwillman, Moe Dalitz, David Berman- were involved in the numbers rackets, illegal drug dealing, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking. They were not nice men.

During the rise of American Nazism in the 1930s and when Israel was being founded between 1945 and 1948, however, they proved staunch defenders of the Jewish people.
The roots of Jewish gangsterism lay in the ethnic neighborhoods of the Lower East Side; Brownsville, Brooklyn; Maxwell Street in Chicago; and Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. Like other newly arrived groups in American history, a few Jews who considered themselves blocked from respectable professions used crime as a means to "make good" economically. The market for vice flourished during Prohibition and Jews joined with others to exploit the artificial market created by the legal bans on alcohol, gambling, paid sex and narcotics.

Few of these men were religiously observant. They rarely attended services, although they did support congregations financially. They did not keep kosher or send their children to day schools. However, at crucial moments they protected other Jews, in America and around the world.

The 1930s were a period of rampant anti-Semitism in America, particularly in the Midwest. Father Charles Coughlin, the Radio Priest in Detroit, and William Pelley of Minneapolis, among others, openly called for Jews to be driven from positions of responsibility, if not from the country itself.

Organized Brown Shirts in New York and Silver Shirts in Minneapolis outraged and terrorized American Jewry. While the older and more respectable Jewish organizations pondered a response that would not alienate non-Jewish supporters, others - including a few rabbis -asked the gangsters to break up American Nazi rallies.
Historian Robert Rockaway writing in the journal of the American Jewish Historical Society, notes that German-American Bund rallies in the NYC area posed a dilemma for mainstream Jewish leaders. They wanted the rallies stopped, but had no legal grounds on which to do so. New York State Judge Nathan Perlman personally contacted Meyer Lansky to ask him to disrupt the Bund rallies, with the proviso that Lansky's henchmen stop short of killing any Bundists. Enthusiastic for the assignment, if disappointed by the restraints, Lansky accepted all of Perlman's terms except one: he would take no money for the work. Lansky later observed, "I was a Jew and felt for those Jews in Europe who were suffering. They were my brothers."

For months, Lansky's workmen effectively broke up one Nazi rally after another. As Rockaway notes, "Nazi arms, legs and ribs were broken and skulls were cracked, but no one died."

Lansky recalled breaking up a Brown Shirt rally in the Yorkville section of Manhattan: "The stage was decorated with a swastika and a picture of Hitler. The speakers started ranting. There were only fifteen of us, but we went into action. We threw some of them out the windows. . . .. Most of the Nazis panicked and ran out. We chased them and beat them up.... We wanted to show them that Jews would not always sit back and accept insults."

In Minneapolis, William Dudley Pelley organized a Silver Shirt Legion to "rescue" America from an imaginary Jewish-Communist conspiracy. In Pelle's own words, just as "Mussolini and his Black Shirts saved Italy and as Hitler and his Brown Shirts saved Germany," he would save America from Jewish communists. Minneapolis gambling czar David Berman confronted Pelley's Silver Shirts on behalf of the Minneapolis Jewish community.

Berman learned that Silver Shirts were mounting a rally at Lodge. When the Nazi leader called for all the "Jew bastards" in the city to be expelled, or worse, Berman and his associates burst in to the room and started cracking heads. After ten minutes, they had emptied the hall. His suit covered in blood, Berman took the microphone and announced, "This is a warning. Anybody who says anything against Jews gets the same treatment. Only next time it will be worse." After Berman broke up two more rallies, there were no more public Silver Shirt meetings in Minneapolis.

Jewish gangsters also helped establish Israel after the war. One famous example is a meeting between Bugsy Siegel and Reuven Dafne, a Haganah emissary, in 1945. Dafne was seeking funds and guns to help liberate Palestine from British rule. A mutual friend arranged for the two men to meet.

"You mean to tell me Jews are fighting?" Siegel asked "You mean fighting as in killing?" Dafne answered in the affirmative..
Siegel replied, "I'm with you."

For weeks, Dafne received suitcases filled with $5 & $10 bills--$50,000 in all -- from Siegel.

No one should paint gangsters as heroes. They committed acts of great evil. But historian Rockaway has presented a textured version of Jewish gangster history in a book ironically titled, "But They Were Good to their Mothers."

Some have observed that, despite their disreputable behavior, they could be good to their people, too. A little interesting Jewish history.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15 2008. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.
=====================================================
REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz .. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .
***********************************

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back, and take the following multiple choice test.

These events are actual events from history.. They really happened! Do you remember?


HERE'S THE TEST

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:

a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo`
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

14. And now we can add: In 2009, 31 people wounded and 13 American Soldiers murdered on base at Fort Hood by a Major that was known as
a: You guessed it - A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story
'Forrest Gump' so aptly put it,
'Stupid is as stupid does.'

_______________________________
JAMES L. BERENTHAL, ESQ.
BERENTHAL & ASSOCIATES, P.C.
317 MADISON AVENUE
SUITE 405
NEW YORK, NY 10017-7951
TELEPHONE: (212) 302-9494

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Monday, January 4, 2010

Deals on Retired Car Models

With automakers finally starting to reel in their rebates, $4,000 off the price of any new Saturn sounds like a sweetheart deal. The hefty discount brings the starting price of the sexy Sky roadster down to the low 20s, making it one of the cheapest sporty convertibles on the market. And it drops the price of the seven-seat Outlook crossover to the mid-20s, a great price for a well-equipped family hauler.

The come-ons, however, omit one discouraging fact: Saturn is going out of business. Parent company General Motors has pledged to service all Saturn vehicles indefinitely, through other dealerships, but smart car buyers know that the true value of a car also depends on what it will be worth in a few years, if you decide to sell it. And the resale picture has never been hazier.

In addition to Saturn, GM is closing its Pontiac division and streamlining the lineups for Chevrolet and Buick. The company's Saab division may shut down completely, and a little-known Chinese company has purchased Hummer. Crosstown rival Chrysler is likely to kill many of its underperforming models as well. And with a devastating plunge in auto sales over the past two years, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and other automakers are also pruning their lineups.

More from U.S. News & World Report

» Slide Show: The Best Discontinued Cars

» Slide Show: The Worst Discontinued Cars

All of that fallout, combined with the usual retirement of aging models, will soon produce a frenzy of clearance sales on cars. Automakers plan to retire nearly 50 models over the next two years, including some of the most popular cars on the market. Some of these cars will be great buys, fully backed by the manufacturers and still popular years from now. Others will end up as soon forgotten orphans, barely worth the value of their sheet metal.

But don't expect the dealer to help you distinguish the classics from the clunkers: They don't want you to know when a model has been discontinued. To keep buyers from demanding fire-sale discounts, in fact, many automakers don't even announce when they plan to stop producing a model. It just disappears from showrooms.

To help identify the best and worst discontinued cars, I asked the analysts at car-research site KBB.com to identify models likely to be discontinued over the next couple of years. For some of these models, the manufacturers have confirmed that the car is being axed; others made the list because of strong indicators that they're being discontinued, such as manufacturing changes or declining shipments to dealers. KBB then predicted the residual value of each of those models in five years--the amount it's likely to be worth, expressed as a percentage of its original list price. The median vehicle has a predicted residual value of 22 percent in five years. The highest residual value is 35 percent; the lowest, 15 percent.

Residuals generally reflect the quality and reliability of the car and the reputation of the automaker. So cars with high residual values tend to be the best-rated cars, whether they're discontinued or not. Residual values don't really matter if you're likely to own a new car for, say, 10 years, or the car's entire life span. But if you think you'll sell the car or trade it in within a few years, or you might want to buy a leased car after the contract expires, then residual values should be a key part of your purchase decision.

Smart buyers weigh price and residual values together: A deep discount might seem like a great deal today, but it will lower the value of the car in the future. Most Saturns, for example, have lower-than- average residual values, and none makes our top 10 list of discontinued cars. A really low price might still make a Saturn an irresistible deal, but a modest discount on a car with a higher residual might turn out to be a better buy.

Getting a good price depends on how much research you do and how effectively you negotiate. Car shoppers should start by researching the fair market value of a car they're interested in at sites like KBB.com, U.S. News's car-ranking site, Edmunds.com, or Intellichoice.com, then try to push the dealer below that price. Meanwhile, here are 10 cars that should top the list for shoppers looking for a good deal on a discontinued car:

Toyota Matrix. (Starting price, about $17,000; discontinuation date: unconfirmed; five-year residual value: 35 percent.) This cute and practical wagon isn't as trendy as the Honda Fit or as spacious as the Toyota RAV4. But it's comfortable and affordable, with a strong reliability record and gas mileage close to 30 mpg. Because it has been a popular car for years, the Matrix should remain appealing for a long time. It's worth noting that the Pontiac Vibe is nearly identical to the Matrix, since the two models are built on the same assembly as part of a joint venture. And the Vibe is being discontinued as part of the Pontiac wind-down. But the Vibe's residual value—27 percent—is lower than that of the Matrix because Pontiac has a weaker brand image than Toyota.

Toyota FJ Cruiser. (About $25,000; unconfirmed; 33 percent.) Toyota's answer to the Jeep Wrangler has been a hit with off-roaders and beach bums, but the FJ Cruiser has never garnered the mainstream appeal Toyota sought. Still, this retro rambler boasts strong safety and reliability ratings, and its rugged looks have a kind of timeless appeal.

Honda S2000. (About $35,000; 2009; 32 percent.) If you can find one of these roadsters, grab it. Honda stopped building the S2000 in mid-2009, and dealers would probably be completely sold out if not for a miserable economy. Those cars that are left will be labeled as 2009 models, since there is no 2010. The S2000's design barely changed for 10 years, yet this finely engineered, rear-drive sports car continually wowed critics with its precise handling and thrilling acceleration. And the S2000's curves should wear as well as some of the classics.

Chevy Colorado pickup. (About $18,000; unconfirmed; 30 percent.) This compact pickup never really found its niche, with less towing capacity than competitors and a cabin that wasn't quite as refined. When outfitted with a few options, it came close in price to its big brother, the Chevy Silverado—a much more rugged truck. But the Colorado is still a serviceable pickup that's great for light hauling. Its nearly identical cousin, the GMC Canyon, will also be retired around the same time as the Colorado, and has the same residual value.

Lexus SC430. (About $65,000; unconfirmed; 30 percent.) The power retractable hardtop was a marvel when this high-priced sports car debuted in 2002, and the SC has always impressed critics with its plush, precise interior. Reliability is superb. The styling hasn't changed much since the 2002 debut, but this will remain a classy ride years into the future.

Volkswagen GLI. (About $25,000; 2009; 28 percent.) Technically speaking, this lively sedan hasn't been discontinued; it's merely sitting out the 2010 model year as Volkswagen winds down its current production plan and focuses on a redesigned GLI that will debut for 2011. The asterisk doesn't change the fact that this Jetta-GTI hybrid is a barnburner that blends grin-inducing performance with the space and respectability of a four-door.

Hyundai Veracruz. (About $28,000; 2012; 28 percent.) For the price, this seven-passenger SUV offers a generous set of standard features, such as a full set of airbags and safety equipment, rear-seat climate control, and a backup warning system. And the cabin earns high marks for its luxury feel and quiet ride. Competitors like the Mazda CX-9 and Chevrolet Traverse have a sportier ride or better packaging, but the Veracruz offers a lot of transportation for a fair price. [Note: The fate of the Veracruz has been in flux as Hyundai adjusts its lineup, and its life may be extended.]

Pontiac G8. (About $28,000; 2009; 26 percent.) For all of its empty promises, parent company GM truly did build excitement when it created the G8, which hits nearly every base required of a premium sports sedan: It offers muscle-car acceleration, crisp handling, good looks, and a spacious rear seat. The upgraded GXP model even compares favorably with the BMW 5 series, which costs $20,000 more. That explains why the G8 ranks highest among the discontinued GM products on our list. With Pontiac's demise, other GM dealerships will continue to honor warranties and provide service. Good thing - some enthusiasts predict the G8 may even become a collector car.

Pontiac Solstice. (About $27,000; 2009; 26 percent.) It's tiny and impractical, but this two-seat roadster sure is fun. And it's relatively cheap for a vehicle with real sports-car performance. Critics ding the Solstice for a subpar interior, but you might be so delighted by the ride that you don't notice. The Saturn Sky, incidentally, is nearly identical, with some refinements that raise the price by a couple of thousand dollars. Yet the Sky's residual value is 4 percentage points lower than the Solstice's.

Mercury Sable. (About $25,000; 2009; 24 percent.) The Sable's twin, the Ford Taurus, was completely redesigned for 2010, but the Sable was put out to pasture. So remaining models are built on a dated platform. Still, the Sable has earned praise as a spacious and comfortable family car, and is one of U.S. News's Best Cars for the Money. It's got more cargo space than a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry and a high seating position that will let buyers cruise into the future in confidence.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Solution to Killer Superbug Found in Norway

Solution to Killer Superbug Found in Norway Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza
OSLO, Norway (Dec. 30) -- Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bed sheets dropped in a corner.
Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.
Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths -- 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS -- are unnecessary.
"It's a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be controlled, and with not too much effort," said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo's MRSA medical adviser. "But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention, and you must not give up."

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat.
Now, in Norway's simple solution, there's a glimmer of hope.

Dr. John Birger Haug shuffles down Aker's scuffed corridors, patting the pocket of his baggy white scrubs. "My bible," the infectious disease specialist says, pulling out a little red Antibiotic Guide that details this country's impressive MRSA solution.
It's what's missing from this book -- an array of antibiotics -- that makes it so remarkable.

"There are times I must show these golden rules to our doctors and tell them they cannot prescribe something, but our patients do not suffer more and our nation, as a result, is mostly infection free," he says.

Norway's model is surprisingly straightforward.
-- Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

-- Patients with MRSA are isolated, and medical staff who test positive stay at home.

-- Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they've been and who they've been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.
Haug unlocks the dispensary, a small room lined with boxes of pills, bottles of syrups and tubes of ointment. What's here? Medicines considered obsolete in many developed countries. What's not? Some of the newest, most expensive antibiotics, which aren't even registered for use in Norway, "because if we have them here, doctors will use them," he says.
He points to an antibiotic. "If I treated someone with an infection in Spain with this penicillin, I would probably be thrown in jail," he says, "and rightly so, because it's useless there."
Norwegians are sanguine about their coughs and colds, toughing it out through low-grade infections.

"We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever. We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better," Haug says.
Convenience stores in downtown Oslo are stocked with an amazing and colorful array -- 42 different brands at one downtown 7-Eleven -- of soothing, but non-medicated, lozenges, sprays and tablets. All workers are paid on days they, or their children, stay home sick. And drug makers aren't allowed to advertise, reducing patient demands for prescription drugs.

In fact, most marketing here sends the opposite message: "Penicillin is not a cough medicine," says the tissue packet on the desk of Norway's MRSA control director, Dr. Petter Elstrom.
He recognizes his country is "unique in the world and best in the world" when it comes to MRSA. Less than 1 percent of health care providers are positive carriers of MRSA staph.

But Elstrom worries about the bacteria slipping in through other countries. Last year almost every diagnosed case in Norway came from someone who had been abroad.
"So far we've managed to contain it, but if we lose this, it will be a huge problem," he said. "To be very depressing about it, we might in some years be in a situation where MRSA is so endemic that we have to stop doing advanced surgeries, things like organ transplants, if we can't prevent infections. In the worst-case scenario, we are back to 1913, before we had antibiotics."

Forty years ago, a new spectrum of antibiotics enchanted public health officials, quickly quelling one infection after another. In wealthier countries that could afford them, patients and providers came to depend on antibiotics. Trouble was, the more antibiotics are consumed, the more resistant bacteria develop.
Norway responded swiftly to initial MRSA outbreaks in the 1980s by cutting antibiotic use. Thus while they got ahead of the infection, the rest of the world fell behind.

In Norway, MRSA has accounted for less than 1 percent of staph infections for years. That compares to 80 percent in Japan, the world leader in MRSA; 44 percent in Israel; and 38 percent in Greece.
In the U.S., cases have soared and MRSA cost $6 billion last year. Rates have gone up from 2 percent in 1974 to 63 percent in 2004. And in the United Kingdom, they rose from about 2 percent in the early 1990s to about 45 percent, although an aggressive control program is now starting to work.

About 1% of people in developed countries carry MRSA on their skin. Usually harmless, the bacteria can be deadly when they enter a body, often through a scratch. MRSA spreads rapidly in hospitals where sick people are more vulnerable, but there have been outbreaks in prisons, gyms, even on beaches. When dormant, the bacteria are easily detected by a quick nasal swab and destroyed by antibiotics.
Dr. John Jernigan at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they incorporate some of Norway's solutions in varying degrees, and his agency "requires hospitals to move the needle, to show improvement, and if they don't show improvement, they need to do more."

And if they don't?
"Nobody is accountable to our recommendations," he said, "but I assume hospitals and institutions are interested in doing the right thing."

Dr. Barry Farr, a retired epidemiologist who watched a successful MRSA control program launched 30 years ago at the University of Virginia's hospitals, blamed the CDC for clinging to past beliefs that hand washing is the best way to stop the spread of infections like MRSA. He says it's time to add screening and isolation methods to their controls.
The CDC needs to "eat a little crow and say, 'Yeah, it does work,'" he said. "There's example after example. We don't need another study. We need somebody to just do the right thing."
But can Norway's program really work elsewhere?
The answer lies in the busy laboratory of an aging little public hospital about 100 miles outside of London. It's here that microbiologist Dr. Lynne Liebowitz got tired of seeing the stunningly low Nordic MRSA rates while facing her own burgeoning cases.
So she turned Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn into a petri dish, asking doctors to almost completely stop using two antibiotics known for provoking MRSA infections.

One month later, the results were in: MRSA rates were tumbling. And they've continued to plummet. Five years ago, the hospital had 47 MRSA bloodstream infections. This year they've had one.

"I was shocked, shocked," Liebowitz says, bouncing onto her toes and grinning as colleagues nearby drip blood onto slides and peer through microscopes in the hospital laboratory.
When word spread of her success, Liebowitz's phone began to ring. So far she has replicated her experiment at four other hospitals, all with the same dramatic results.

"It's really very upsetting that some patients are dying from infections which could be prevented," she says. "It's wrong."
Around the world, various medical providers have also successfully adapted Norway's program with encouraging results. A medical center in Billings, Mont., cut MRSA infections by 89 percent by increasing screening, isolating patients and making all staff -- not just doctors -- responsible for increasing hygiene.

In Japan, with its cutting-edge technology and modern hospitals, about 17,000 die from MRSA every year.

Dr. Satoshi Hori, chief infection control doctor at Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, says doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients.
Hori now limits antibiotics only to patients who really need them and screens and isolates high-risk patients. So far his hospital has cut the number of MRSA cases by two-thirds.

In 2001, the CDC approached a Veterans Affairs hospital in Pittsburgh about conducting a small test program. It started in one unit, and within four years, the entire hospital was screening everyone who came through the door for MRSA. The result: an 80 percent decrease in MRSA infections. The program has now been expanded to all 153 VA hospitals, resulting in a 50 percent drop in MRSA bloodstream infections, said Dr. Robert Muder, chief of infectious diseases at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.
"It's kind of a no-brainer," he said. "You save people pain, you save people the work of taking care of them, you save money, you save lives, and you can export what you learn to other hospital-acquired infections."

Pittsburgh's program has prompted all other major hospital-acquired infections to plummet as well, saving roughly $1 million a year.
"So, how do you pay for it?" Muder asked. "Well, we just don't pay for MRSA infections, that's all."

Beth Reimer of Batavia, Ill., became an advocate for MRSA precautions after her 5-week-old daughter Madeline caught a cold that took a fatal turn. One day her beautiful baby had the sniffles. The next?
"She wasn't breathing. She was limp," the mother recalled. "Something was terribly wrong."

MRSA had invaded her little lungs. The antibiotics were useless. Maddie struggled to breathe, swallow, survive, for two weeks.
"For me to sit and watch Madeline pass away from such an aggressive form of something, to watch her fight for her little life -- it was too much," Reimer said.

Since Madeline's death, Reimer has become outspoken about the need for better precautions, pushing for methods successfully used in Norway. She's stunned, she said, that anyone disputes the need for change.

"Why are they fighting for this not to take place?" she said.

10 Things Your Auto Insurer Won't Tell You

10 Things Your Auto Insurer Won't Tell You

Buzz Up! Updated and adapted from the book, "1,001 Things They Won't Tell You: An Insider's Guide to Spending, Saving, and Living Wisely," by Jonathan Dahl and the editors of SmartMoney.

1. “When I say this is a good policy, I mean it’s good for me.”
While agents can help you navigate auto policies, some may not have your best interest at heart: Often, large auto and home insurers use “contingent commissions” to compensate agents who sold their policies. These fees come in two types:
“steering” commissions for signing customers with a particular carrier, and profit-based commissions, when clients don’t file a lot of costly claims. The concern with the former is that unscrupulous agents push certain policies to reap larger commissions; with the latter, they might delay or discourage claims.

How to protect yourself? Ask about commissions, and have prospective agents explain their recommendations.

MORE AT SMARTMONEY.COM
» Is Now the Time to Retire Your Tires?
» How Good Is the New Taurus?
» How to Get the Best Deal on a New Car

2. “Young drivers can't catch a break.”
Statistics show that drivers under age 25, especially male, are in a high risk group, and have difficulty getting insured. But the specifics are startling: Drivers in NY under the age of 19 pay a median auto insurance rate that is over 100 percent higher than drivers age 60 to 74, according to a 2009 survey published on InsuranceRates.com.

It typically takes three years of driving experience to be quoted a lower rate, according to AllInsuranceInfo.org's site. But there are other ways to ensure a better rate in the short term. For example, avoid sports cars and opt for a car with a lower engine capacity. Also ask your insurer for ways to score a lower premium. According to information posted on the AllInsuranceInfo.org site, some insurers will give a lower rate to young drivers who complete a defensive driving course.

3. “Spotty credit? That’ll cost you.”
Since the 1990s, insurers have discovered a strong correlation between low credit scores and filing lots of claims. Today, more than 90 percent of insurers use credit history in their underwriting, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a New York-based organization. Although consumer advocates argue that it unfairly penalizes the poor, it can also bite the middle class, says Birny Birnbaum, executive director at the Center for Economic Justice. After all, “87 percent of families in bankruptcy are there because of a job loss, medical catastrophe, or divorce,” he says.

Since many insurers do factor in credit history, it’s important to get your credit report from each of the three bureaus—TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax—and check them for errors before you shop for insurance.

4. “How do we set premiums? That’s for us to know and you to find out.”
As insurers continue to adopt complex pricing systems, not everyone is seeing savings. Why the disparity? For starters, premiums vary widely by state.According to a 2007 study from the National Association of  Insurance Commissioners, the average year-long policy in 2005 cost $949—ranging from a low of $664 in Iowa to a high of $1,343 in the District of Columbia.

What’s muddied the waters even further are the formulas used to set premiums for individuals. Twenty years ago most insurers sorted customers into four or five pricing tiers, based on where they lived, their age, and their driving record. Over the past decade, hundreds of variables have been added to the mix, including credit history, homeownership, and limits on past policies. Since each insurer interprets these variables differently, it’s even tougher for consumers to get a handle on the system.

5. “Your repaired car might look and run like new, but it’s worth a lot less.”
As many policyholders know, when the other party’s insurer is paying for repairs after an accident, you have the right to opt for original manufacturer parts instead of generic aftermarket ones. But even with the best parts and service in the world, a fully-repaired vehicle will often be worth less as a used car or trade-in than an identical car without the accident history.

Luckily, it’s not a total loss—even if you can’t collect diminished value, you can probably write it off on your tax ret urn. (Consult your tax adviser.) That’s why it’s a good idea to hire a post repair inspector, both to ensure that the work was done properly and to assess diminished value.

6. “Totaled your car? Good luck collecting its full value...”
Policyholders may be surprised that insurance companies don’t typically get their valuations from such standard sources as Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds.com. Instead, many use claims servicing companies, which consult proprietary databases to assess valuation. Some firms canvasses dealerships in local markets to build a database of comps.

If your car is totaled, you needn’t accept your insurer’s first offer. Go to Edmunds.com or AutoTrader.com to find better comps, and call the sellers listed on the insurer’s report to verify their price. No dice? If it’s a matter of $1,000 or more, hire your own appraiser and go through an appraisal- arbitration process.


7. "... and we’re more likely than ever to declare your car totaled.”
Given the "haircut" you’re likely to take when replacing your totaled car, many policyholders would prefer to have repairs covered in all but the most severe accidents. But that’s becoming increasingly difficult.

What constitutes “totaled”? An insurer’s rule of thumb is to deem a car totaled when repairs would exceed 70 percent of the vehicle’s value. And if your car’s frame is damaged, it can remain a safety hazard even when repaired. But if the damage is limited to a few minor, albeit expensive, components, you can appeal your insurer’s decision to total it.

8. “Your mechanic works for us.”
The auto insurance industry has long relied on direct-repair programs, which function like HMOs for ailing cars, with insurers maintaining lists of recommended repair facilities. In the last decade, some insurers have taken the relationship a step further; in 2001, Allstate announced it was buying a nationwide chain of repair shops.

Whether it’s a network of preferred providers or outright ownership, such coziness between insurers and body shops makes consumer advocates nervous. It lets the insurers take too much control over the repair process. And when you have pressure to keep costs low, you sometimes see shortcuts in repairs.

More often than not, you have a choice whether or not to use the insurer-recommended shop. So should you? It’s convenient, and in some cases, policyholders who take their cars there can get their deductible reduced or waived. If you do take the “in-network” route, hire a post-repair inspector to make sure repairs are done properly.

9. “Brand loyalty is for suckers...”
As more insurers adopt elaborately-tiered pricing strategies, rates may differ dramatically from company to company. You might be better off comparison-shopping once a year rather than automatically renewing your policy--especially if your own circumstances change. Start by getting online quotes from Geico and Progressive Direct. Also be sure to ask an independent agent for quotes, as well as from companies like Allstate and State Farm.

10. “. . . but be careful switching carriers—it could cost you.”
No doubt you’ve seen the warnings in your policy that not paying your premiums can cause your policy to be canceled. It might lead you to think that when you want to switch carriers, dropping the old insurer is as simple as stopping payment. Not so. If you don’t pay a bill for the next term, chances are your carrier won’t simply cancel the policy—it may also report your nonpayment to the credit bureaus. (Most insurers are required to give you a certain number of days’ notice before cancellation.) Also, your new carrier will see a cancellation in your history, which could mean you’ll pay higher rates or be declined.

To avoid the issue, get the proper documentation. Ask your current carrier for a policy cancellation form, and make sure the timing is right—that the ending date of your old policy coincides with the start date of your new one.