Indexed Annuities - SEC Drops the Other Shoe

[insuranceexec]

One of the best moments of my life was watching my son's face when he got his first paycheck. He expected it to be something like $700 but it was $320. He wanted me to help him find the mistakes. Sorry son, there are no mistakes. Welcome to the world of withholding. You can also start to figure out from this point that liberals are liberal with your money and that maybe your grouchy old conservative dad had a damn good reason to be grouchy.[/quote]


Careful there Charpress I am starting to like you.........

 

[Justin Bilyj]

conservatives want to nationalize, liberals want to socialize, whos behind the two, central bankers.....they were in charge of both mccain and obama's campaigns, as well as the primaries. The illusion of choice is crippling the effectiveness of representation.

 

[Charpress]

I don't think I will ever vote for a national candidate again unless they make two firm campaign promises:

Make English the national language.

Dismantle the absurd retirement system that Congress enjoys and require all members of Congress to go to Social Security as their retirement vehicle.

Congress living in a different world than the rest of us is a huge part of the problem.

 

[padthaiforlunch]

The illusion of choice is crippling the effectiveness of representation.

Sounds like something you might hear at an AA meeting (Libertines = Libertarians, no?)

 

[Paradigm]

But AA is a crock... alcoholism is not a disease its just weakness and can only be overcome by desire willpower and a reason to change. The alcoholic is not sick with a diease he or she is weak in personal will power.

 

[patch36]

conservatives want to nationalize, liberals want to socialize, whos behind the two, central bankers.....they were in charge of both mccain and obama's campaigns, as well as the primaries. The illusion of choice is crippling the effectiveness of representation.

Just because you spew it don't make it true.

Conservatives, where I come from, want to privatize, not nationalize.

Ron Paul is a poser. He drained votes from the party he represents. If he was serious about winning and about his views, which for the most part I agree with, he would have ran as an independent or as a libertarian. He KNEW that he had no chance as a Republican, yet he chose to dilute the vote by claiming to be a Republican.

IMO, the world is too complicated and too disorganized to be controlled by a mysterious group of Central Bankers, etc. To each their own, but conspiracies are just a way to delegate blame rather than admit failure and loss.

But as you point out, I am an old fux.

 

[sman]

But AA is a crock... alcoholism is not a disease its just weakness and can only be overcome by desire willpower and a reason to change. The alcoholic is not sick with a diease he or she is weak in personal will power.

Paradigm,

Go do some research. Not saying will power doesn't have something to do with it nor if AA is a crock or not, but study what happens to the brain of a person who is an alcoholic when he/she drinks compared to what happens to the brain of the person that can have a couple with no problems. The difference in the chemical reaction with the brain of the person that is an alcoholic and the non-alcoholic is worlds apart.

There is a NEED for the person who is alcoholic to drink that is stronger than will power. This is due to the chemical reaction. I have no idea whether we should classify it as a disease or not, but maybe you should come down off of your righteous pedestal until you have some factual evidence to back up those blanket statements. You either have never had an addiction or have had a close relative or friend with an addiction. No rational person would ever want to end up an addict.

 

[Paradigm]

Paradigm,

Go do some research. Not saying will power doesn't have something to do with it nor if AA is a crock or not, but study what happens to the brain of a person who is an alcoholic when he/she drinks compared to what happens to the brain of the person that can have a couple with no problems. The difference in the chemical reaction with the brain of the person that is an alcoholic and the non-alcoholic is worlds apart.

There is a NEED for the person who is alcoholic to drink that is stronger than will power. This is due to the chemical reaction. I have no idea whether we should classify it as a disease or not, but maybe you should come down off of your righteous pedestal until you have some factual evidence to back up those blanket statements. You either have never had an addiction or have had a close relative or friend with an addiction. No rational person would ever want to end up an addict.

The ? is not whether there is an addiction... I fully admit there is an addiction but it is within the pesons will to act. The alcoholic may have a greater propensity to drink than others but he can choose to stop. I was a heavy binge drinker in college starting thursday and extending through monday weekly but i did not continue it after college. It is a question of will and the reason a person is alcoholic is tolerance level obtained by years of drinking. Three drinks just doesnt give them a buzz anymore so they drink a sixer and later a twelve pack.

Its not a question of rational. NEED is a copout. I may have a need to have a different blond every night but if I want to retain the services of my girlfriend I refrain from indulging that need. Most people drink to avoid the pain of their lives whether than pain is real or imagined. But they can choose to not drink if they desire it strongly enough.

AA is just about accountability and avoidance. The secret is not that it is moderation and self control. Otherwise why is the best addiction fighting method always avoidance or cold turkey.

 

[sman]

The ? is not whether there is an addiction... I fully admit there is an addiction but it is within the pesons will to act. The alcoholic may have a greater propensity to drink than others but he can choose to stop. I was a heavy binge drinker in college starting thursday and extending through monday weekly but i did not continue it after college. It is a question of will and the reason a person is alcoholic is tolerance level obtained by years of drinking. Three drinks just doesnt give them a buzz anymore so they drink a sixer and later a twelve pack.

Its not a question of rational. NEED is a copout. I may have a need to have a different blond every night but if I want to retain the services of my girlfriend I refrain from indulging that need. Most people drink to avoid the pain of their lives whether than pain is real or imagined. But they can choose to not drink if they desire it strongly enough.

AA is just about accountability and avoidance. The secret is not that it is moderation and self control. Otherwise why is the best addiction fighting method always avoidance or cold turkey.

I didn't say will power had nothing to do with it. But will power alone is never enough. Eventually, in our weakness, we give in. There must be something that helps us get through that moment of weakness. For some it's their faith, for others the pain of the consequence may be greater than the pleasure of the moment. My point is that there is a chemical dependency. Until one can rid their system of the chemical and then find a way to live without it, they think they have a "NEED" for it. You say copout, I say reality. Many of us were weekend warriors in our younger years. That doesn't change the fact that an addict has a different chemical reaction than the non addict. This is a proven fact.

The alcoholic may have a greater propensity to drink than others but he can choose to stop.

If only it were that simple.

Most people drink to avoid the pain of their lives whether than pain is real or imagined.

Again, I never stated anything to the contrary. Although, I must admit that when I started drinking it wasn't to mask pain. At first it was a "try it out and see what happens". Then it was a, "man I like the way I feel when I drink". I never drank to avoid pain. It was for fun. And no, I was never an alcoholic (at least I didn't think so). I have a saying, "Drinking never got me in trouble, but every time I got in trouble I was drinking".

Otherwise why is the best addiction fighting method always avoidance or cold turkey.

Going "cold turkey" or "detoxing" is necessary to rid the body of the chemical. It really has nothing to do with treating the addiction. Whether it's alcohol or some other drug. The addiction is a completely different issue. It's about changing our defaults. What we default to, who we default to, etc. It's also about recognizing the triggers that cause us to want to use and replacing that desire with something healthy.

Not trying to get "preachy" here, but Watchman Nee said it best when he said,

"The power of sin far exceeds the power of the will. Sin is a law; it is not destroyed by the resistance of man's will. Whenever the power of will slackens, the law of sin surfaces. The human will cannot persist forever, but the law of sin is always active. The will may prevail for a little while, but in the end it will always be overcome by the law of sin".

I'm not saying drinking is a sin. I have no problem with someone drinking. What I'm saying is that we can replace the word "sin" with the phrase "any life controlling issue". We can fight the urge to do whatever we know it is that we shouldn't do but eventually people may give in. Of course, it also depends on a what a person deems as good or bad as to whether they even see it as an issue. Obviously someone like Bill Clinton doesn't have an issue with cheating on his wife. So telling him he's doing something wrong and he should use his "will power" to overcome those urges is useless.

It's good to know that you can overcome everything with your "will power". I for one will rely on a power far greater than me to overcome my "life controlling issues". I find myself being less judgmental that way. Legalism is a tough town to live in.

 

[Paradigm]

God grants us free will and we can choose to exercise that free will at any time. Faith in God can strengthen that will.

I believe socialization, the choices presented to us and how we are nutured and by whom determines all this. If a parent is an alcoholic or any other learned behavior (homosexual, overweight, addicted to televison) the child will have a greater propensity for those behaviors. But make no mistake one doesnt suddenly morph into an alcoholic, a homosexual or an addict. It is a choice (whether conscous or unconcious).

To say in most cases that one has a chemical imbalance or a drinking problem is not accurate it is that the person is weak in will. For whatever reason this happened (a painful memory, peer pressure, etc) something has happened in that person's past that has caused them to act self destructively and hence irrationally. They have abdicated responsibility and whether they chose to admit it or not they have found it easier to escape than to face their core issues.

To blame it on anything else in most cases is a copout. The best advice to any such person is shut up stop whining and take responsibility and own the choices you make.

If you dont like your outcomes change them and if you do; dont change. The truth is people will destroy themselves out of their desire to feel good.

If this seems cold, I apologize. I have known addicts, alcoholics etc and the cold hard truth is they got where they are because it seemed the easiest path to them. In short: Chaos is natural...order takes effort.