Bouncing Hedgehog

Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

I was absolutely gobsmacked to read that medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. I know of no other country where this is the case.

The figures are really quite staggering. An estimated 1,500,000 Americans will declare bankruptcy this year. Now many people would put that down to Americans chasing the myth of the “American Dream” and buying crap that they really don’t need and certainly can’t afford. A new study (to be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine) however, suggests that 60% of those declaring bankruptcy this year will do so because of medical bills. Read the rest of this entry »

Further to my earlier post about gas prices and how a wonderfully accurate survey said that pump prices were expected to peak this summer at $2.55 I think it was.

$2.55? I wish!

Now of course I am sure there’s absolutely no price fixing whatsoever going on in my area, but it really does seem odd to me that every single gas station (many different vendors) in my area have got gas at $2.75 today. So I guess the survey wasn’t worth the paper it was written on as summer is barely here and our prices are already 20 cents higher than the expected peak. Read the rest of this entry »

I am sick to death of Americans bleating that their health system is the best in the world and that universal health care in general (and the UK system in particular) is the road to ruin. At least that’s the popular conservative right-wing bleat.

It is, is it? Right, first a short story.

My mother is 75 and her partner is in his nineties and they both live in the UK. Recently he fell and broke his arm. Because of his age and the fact that he’s on heart medication an operation to set the arm was rejected and so he had to spend time just letting it mend having had it set in plaster. Read the rest of this entry »

I am always interested to see how people find my blog and up until now the number one search term has been “sharking.” Sharking for those of you who don’t know is all about running up to a girl and yanking her knickers down in public whilst somebody else films the whole thing. The result is then posted on the Internet.

Now being a man of the world I can accept that sex (and sex related topics) are the main searches on any search engine. But the latest search term to feature highly in my “hits” really makes me wonder. Read the rest of this entry »

My wife and I usually donate to a few of our charities of choice each year and do so online. Recently we made what appears to be a mistake. We don’t (or didn’t) receive many requests through the mail but got one recently to which we chose to donate. Just $10. Not a fortune by anyone’s standards, but we aren’t rich and times are tough.

As a result we seem to have gone on the mailing list of every damn charity out there.

We are very selective about whom we donate to and do not donate to charities that do not conform to the criteria we have. Which is most of them. Read the rest of this entry »

Running 12 different web sites is a full time occupation and business for me. And like any business it needs to be run efficiently. The trouble is that I can’t get hi-speed Internet in any usable form where I am and I’m only 25 miles from the state capital of WV. My only alternative to dial-up is satellite and that’s no good to me because I need the upload speed (which totally sucks on satellite) not the slightly faster download speed it offers.

“Well, why did you move somewhere where dial-up is your only option?” I hear somebody ask. The answer to which is “I didn’t,” at least so I thought at the time. Before moving to my current location I checked Verizon’s web site to make sure and sure enough it said DSL was available. I even phoned them to make sure. “Yes,” I was told, “DSL is available from that phone number.” Read the rest of this entry »

I was interested to see an article today with the headline “Low pump prices lure Americans back to the road.” Really? Low pump prices? Where?

According to this survey (conducted by AAA) the average pump price in the US was $2.39 per gallon at the time of writing. Although with peak summer demand approaching – not to mention the spurious tax imposed by government at this time – they expect pump prices to peak at $2.50 per gallon. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about living in the US (I’m English) is the assumption that so many Americans make that:

1) The UK is tiny.

2) That I know everyone in it.

I have lost count of the number of times that the following (or very similar) has occurred once someone has realized that I’m English. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an old saying…

Quality not quantity.

This is something that seems to have been completely overlooked by everyone in the US when it comes to TV. What do I mean by that? Well read on and I am sure you will find out. You may not agree of course if you’re American but then, you’ve had a lifetime of being brainwashed so the rest of us will just smile knowingly and let you be. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems I am back to good old West Virginia already in my postings. I live out in the boonies – you wouldn’t think so on paper as it’s only 25 miles from the state capital but judging by the services I get… boonies – and my nearest community is Clendenin. A town of some 2500 people. And guess what? An adult store has opened in the town. And guess what else? Apparently we’re all going to go to hell and burn for all eternity. Read the rest of this entry »