I just noticed that a banner ad from DentalPlans.com is appearing on this site. This is a good thing. As of a few days ago, on the advice of a dental tech., I went there and signed on with a plan called Dentemax. If I’d known about the ads, I’d have clicked through from here and gotten a (tiny) further discount.

All of the plans on the DentalPlan.com site appear to be the (so-called) ‘discount plans’. This seems to mean that they function essentially like insurance would, but do not have nearly the legal hurdles to jump over, so can be profitable with much smaller fees.

Like many insurance plans, there is a hefty up-front fee that the cardholder will have to pay, but there is also a substantial discount. Nobody uses these cards for frivolous purposes, but they easily pay for themselves. A couple of cleanings and a single filling could easily garner enough of a discount to pay for the years coverage.

I paid $104 for an individual plan on Monday. It was effective at 12:01 Tuesday morning and shaved somewhat more than $600 off work (lower partial denture and 3 extractions) that was already scheduled by 10:30 am Tuesday.

No questions.

That, for me, is your basic ‘no-brainer’.

I have friends who pay $72 a month for Delta Dental insurance and they pointed out that their $72 x 12 is roughly equivalent to the $900 that I still had to pay for this work. But they will be paying that $72 x 12 again next year, while I don’t expect to replace the partial denture that soon. If ever. And, if I do, I’ll get the $600 discount all over again.

More than that, they get their insurance through a group plan … something many of us can only look at wistfully, like marzipans through a shop window.

Dentemax (DentalPlans.com) is worth investigating. If you feel like doing me a favor, refresh the screen a few times until you see either a full banner ad for DentalPlans.com come up  below or their text ad. Then click on the ad. If you’re in pain and need the help in the morning, by all means head there without waiting another moment.

I’m not ‘selling clicks’ … my member # is 802674XXX. I ‘drink my own kool-aid.’

In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen observes that the American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, most politicians are corrupt, and neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that there is a “growing disdain for the unholy alliance between the largest corporations and our government… Some of us are ready to give up; some of us are ready to scream a little louder. But all of us believe we can do better.”

Click here to read on, my friend.

Tax time has come around again but, contrary to reports both published and whispered, the IRS is not after your soul.

This year, as every year, many young folk are faced with filing their income taxes for the very first time. Some will get no help from others in their family. This post is addressed to those individuals, but the rest of us could probably profit from reading it, too.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Everyone else, listen up.

I hate GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and their insidious sidekick, chemical farming, with the same passion I reserve for pedophiles, politicians, abortionists and big bankers.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Just this month Forbes called Monsanto heroes.

(hack, cough, cough) Balderdash. I try not to use stronger words, but they would certainly apply.

I should probably post this link on my long-neglected organic gardening blog and, after I post it here, I might just do that.

But this blog gets somewhat more traffic and I think that this video, about the effects of chemical farming in India is instructive. I know that your time is valuable. I’m asking for 30 minutes of it with the promise that I will not waste that 30 minutes. Start by viewing the film for the first 26 minutes.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Just a very brief post today.

Like I often do, I was using Wikipedia several times today to research a small point. Sometimes it is for a book I am working on, sometimes for “pay the rent” college papers, sometimes just to get my facts straight before writing an e-mail or, even more critically, before answering a question from my wife.

Married men: do not underestimate the value of Wikipedia!

The point is, I use Wikipedia a lot and I’m willing to guess that you do too.

Today, in the banner area, there was a request from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, for financial support. You can probably guess where I am going with this, can’t you.

This won’t be the first time I have donated. I have a keen appreciation of the value of what amounts to an encyclopedia that is kept up to the minute. If things change … and I know of the change … I can even make the needed edit myself.

Yeah, just makes me feel warm all over.

That’s Jimmy below. Look at those sad little puppy dog eyes. He’s not getting rich off this; the poor man is going gray and can barely afford to shave. Open your wallet.

They are asking for a minimum contribution of $35 … so are the guys alongside the road with those cute signs about ninjas and kung fu lessons. When I get done paying this months bills, maybe this time I’ll pop ‘em $35-$50. Or, maybe I’ll just slide ‘em the same $20 I’ve been passing along all these lean years. They’ve never complained … and they’ve never shut my subscription off.

Here’s where to go when you leave this blog today. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Support_Wikipedia/en

Oh, and if you make a donation of at least $100, the founder of eBay will match it … turning your $100 into $200 with no pain to you (or him, either … the guy is loaded!) Moreover, this donation is tax deductible for you and for him).

I tutor a young man in the English language. I attempt to cover grammar, composition and so on. With his Dad absent, we talk about the ‘and so on’ fairly often*. We get along okay, even though I’m not always convinced that the time is well spent.

This past Wednesday, as part of an exercise demonstrating viewpoint, I asked him why he thought I tutored him.

Click here to read on, my friend.

As a gardener, I know that my wife and I are held ransom to water. Rain, dew, pipe, irrigation, drip, flood, spray, weep … if the water doesn’t reach our garden somehow – or if there is too much of it or it is timed poorly – our plantings are doomed. If we were counting on that food for our own survival, as much of the world does, things could be bleak indeed.

In many, many places, there is a thick layer of dust and doom spread over the landscape. What water is available is often polluted beyond use, too salty, a vector for horrible diseases or too deep underground to retrieve. Global climate trends have forced people off formerly arable land squarely into the lap of aid agencies. Even if the aid agencies operated in some sort of idealized state – and they do not – living from handout to handout is hardly humankind’s proper state of existence.

Enter, stage left, the incredible synergy of water projects and micro-finance loans.

Click here to read on, my friend.

The melt-down of our economy that started in the fall of 2008 wasn’t just fueled by corporate greed. Corporate greed might be born in a vacuum, but it takes its life from our gluttony.

There will be a lot of people, even those who see ads like this, who will choose to spend themselves into deep debt … and deep doo-doo … again this fall. They do it every year and then hold their breaths until they get their income tax returns. It’s called “keeping up with the Joneses” Well, here’s some bad news … “the Joneses” are broke. They’ve been living on plastic so long they’ve got recipes for it.

It will do no damage to the economy if you don’t buy anything you don’t actually need for a while. In fact, it will help all concerned if you simply focus on paying down your debt and maybe putting a reserve fund away before you start buying ‘shiny’ things again.

The guy in Pakistan who makes these things might feel a pinch for a while, but he’ll get over it.

This is an actual ‘tweet’ from Twitter yesterday. Just another example of your donations at work, folks … keep those ‘love donations’ coming in! (After all, the west wing of ‘the parsonage’ needs a larger pool.)

@kevinhash is grateful for some unexpected donations @burtonmemorial yesterday.   One step closer to getting that jacuzzi in the parsonage.

Not certain how the ‘pastor’ intends to save souls with the Jacuzzi (Jesus didn’t even have a place to lay his head) … but then, I don’t donate to any of the basket-shaking, bucket-rattling, ATM-in-the-foyer-having, box of code-numbered-envelopes-in-January kind of religions.

I used to. But I’m over that now.

Click here to read on, my friend.