Ways to Deal With Elder Abuse

Not everyone is equipped with the patience to be a nurse, yet many Americans find themselves caring for a senior at home. As a result, there are roughly 2 million cases of elder abuse each year that include emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse, as well as neglect. Since 3/5 of the cases of domestic violence committed against seniors are from family members, it is important that you look into finding a senior care facility if you feel your stress levels and patience wearing thin.

Chances are you have already made the decision to put your mother or father into an institution that can best care for their later life needs. Perhaps you felt guilty about it, but deep down knew you couldn't handle the stress and time-consumption of being an at-home caregiver.

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You want to be sure all of your parent's needs are being met and that he or she is happy, although seniors aren't always candid about being abused; perhaps out of fear, humiliation, ignorance of the signs, deep depression or the normalization of violence. Therefore, it's up to you to watch out for symptoms of abusive relationships within the nursing home.

While you are visiting your family member in the care facility, take a look around and be sure you know the people who are regularly caring for your loved one. Perpetrators of elder abuse may callously minimize the victim's complaints or sudden injuries. They may refer to the victim as "crazy," "clumsy" or "off their medication."

When you ask your loved one a question, the abusive caregiver may try to answer everything, speaking on behalf of the victim. They often forbid the victims from contacting family or friends and withhold gifts from being sent to their rooms. They might try to cover up the abuse by canceling medical appointments or taking the victim to different doctors. They may stalk, threaten or harass the victim, or they may act overly attentive or unnecessarily touch the victim often in your presence.

If you suspect a family friend is a victim of emotional, physical, financial or neglectful elder abuse, then you should call your local Adult Protective Services agency. Victims often suddenly "sign over the power of attorney" and have their homes sold for quick cash or have all their possessions given away while they are still in a care facility. Seniors may have bed sores, be malnourished or act withdrawn.

They may forget medication or miss their doctor's appointments. The abuser will try to speak for your friend and try to prevent you from speaking with him or her. Isolation is the leading factor contributing to abuse of the elderly, so play an active role in your friend's life and don't be afraid to call for help or advice.

Ways to Deal With Elder Abuse

Third World Countries in Central America Want Global Warming Damage Retribution

Apparently, the global warming rhetoric coming out of Belgium along with the global media assistance has convinced everyone in the world that the planet's ambient atmospheric temperatures is going to melt all the ice on the poles and raise the water level drowning out any city near sea level elevation. This is an absolute fantasy, but so-called scientists claim it to be a reality.

In the 1970s, another group of scientists tried to convince us that we were going into an Ice Age, and they had all the data and scientific research behind them to prove it. Guess what, we did not go into an Ice Age did we? In fact, since that didn't work out now they are trying the global warming theme to scare us. Unfortunately, so many people believe this that we are changing what works, and trading it for something that doesn't.

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Did you know that many of the governments in Central America are under the impression that there is some kind of ecological debt owed to them by the first world nations? This is due to the fact that they believe that their climates are being hampered, and it is the reason that they have not succeeded in developing their nations. This is complete nonsense, and it lets them off the hook for years of political corruption, guerrilla warfare, and human rights abuses.

These nations in Central America along with Hugo Chavez's ALBA are asking for 5 billion from the Global Warming Summit in Copenhagen. In fact, all of the Central American governments have gotten on board to request this 5 billion payment, and they want the money from the United States of America, the EU, and China to pay for it.

This whole scheme is absolutely preposterous, but it just goes to show you how insane this global warming theory has become. As far as I am concerned they shouldn't get a dollar of my taxpayer money, and if President Obama agrees that we should pay, then I believe he needs to be impeached for not looking out for the United States of America's best interests, for which he was elected. Please consider all this.

Third World Countries in Central America Want Global Warming Damage Retribution

Joe Biden and "Recovery Summer"

Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. may go down in history as the most quoted VP America has ever had.

Until now, Nixon's disgraced Vice President Spiro Theodore Agnew may be said to have held that title thanks to his inimitable alliteration such as his classic putdowns. They included "nattering nabobs of negativism," "pusillanimous pussyfooters," and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."

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Biden could never hope to match those and doesn't seem to be much into alliteratiion anyway and his most recent classics aren't fit for family viewing. Those include his remark to Obama after the passage of Obamacare that "this is a f***ing big deal" and his comment to a custard store manager that he was being "a smarta**" for asking him to cut taxes.

His latest excursion into memorable quotations may not even be Biden's originally but it's being associated with him. At least his reference to "recovery summer" is not rated PG 13 like the others.

If this is the summer of recovery from the recession, it's hard to tell from the jobs numbers.

New employment is off the charts, but only in the federal sector where people have been hired for temporary positions as census workers and as permanent functionaries and their lackeys to administer Obama's slew of new programs in an already bloated bureaucracy.

A few weeks ago Biden announced the launching of "Recovery Summer," a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects to improve highways, parks, drinking water and other public works: http://tiny.cc/gs3lj

Biden and Obama then took off, campaign style, to visit the locales of those projects to garner publicity for the effectiveness of Obama's vaunted 7 billion stimulus package which has stimulated virtually nothing considering the monies allocated.

Of course, we should also consider the millions of "jobs saved," jobs impossible to verify as being "saved."

Far more relevant is the announcement today that non-public employment climbed a piddling 13,000 nationwide in June, a report that "supported fears that the short and tepid recovery from the worst recession since the 1930's was fizzling:" [http://tiny.cc/h04i4]

Friday's jobs report may, or may not, show an improvement in the numbers but with census employment petering out, unless Friday's report shows a massive increase in non-public hiring, Obama and Biden will have to re-name the summer of 2010 as "Relapse Summer."

However, I could be a nattering nabob of negativism.

Joe Biden and "Recovery Summer"

RRP Certification and Massachusetts' Lead Laws

Most contractors that have completed their federal EPA RRP certification are surprised to hear that Massachusetts has its own standards for lead paint safety and lead abatement. While this may cause fear and frustration for many contractors, it is not as frightening as it sounds. It turns out that your federal EPA RRP certification in any state will allow you to be in full compliance with the Massachusetts' lead paint safety law; almost.

If you have taken an EPA approved RRP certification course and are an EPA Certified Renovator, then by Massachusetts' law you are automatically considered a Lead Safe Renovator. Don't let the names confuse you: an EPA Certified Lead Safe Renovator and a Massachusetts' Lead Safe Renovator are pretty much the same thing. An EPA Certified Lead Safe Renovator is allowed to supervise uncertified workers (after training them of course) in the same manner as a Massachusetts Lead Safe Renovator does. This means that if you already have an EPA RRP certification you do not need individual certification in Massachusetts. If you were to receive your training in Massachusetts by a certified training provider, though, you would be more thoroughly trained in OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations such as the usage of personal protective equipment.

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There are only 2 major differences between an EPA Certified Renovator and a MA Lead Safe Renovator. First, Massachusetts' law requires that the Lead Safe Renovator be present at all times during the work. This differs from the EPA's rule, which only requires that the Certified Renovator supervising either be reachable by phone or nearby. So if you are working in Massachusetts you should be conscious of who is present at the job site.

The other major difference that a Certified Renovator should be aware of is that reusable drop cloths (containment) can be used while working outside in Massachusetts. This contradicts the EPA's RRP Rule which requires that outdoor containment be disposed of at the end of the work day.

In case you forgot, a Certified Renovator in any state must be working for a Certified Firm. Unlike the EPA's RRP Rule, Massachusetts lead paint safety laws require that firms be certified with the State of Massachusetts. You can visit the mass.gov website to find the Lead-Safe Renovation Contractor Licensing Waiver. Once approved, this application will allow your firm to legally work in the state.

If you are thinking about moving to Massachusetts, the state keeps a registry of all homes that have had lead paint removed or covered. This can be helpful if you are looking for a lead safe home to live in. The registry can be found online at the Massachusetts Registry of Lead Safe Homes. While all these regulations and laws regarding lead paint may seem like a nuisance, they are in place for the safety of both others and yourself.

If you are looking for more information on the subject, the Massachusetts DOS website has a list Certified Lead Safe Renovation Training Providers.

RRP Certification and Massachusetts' Lead Laws

Why We Need Capitalism to Help the Poor

The other day, I was talking to an acquaintance and he was explaining why socialism was much better than capitalism, because it didn't leave the poor and downtrodden to rot in the gutter. Of course, as a capitalist, in a free market participant, I know this to be utter hogwash, and I was blown away that he'd even bother to make such a silly statement. The reality is society does better when everyone is free to do what they do best, and when individuals are the strongest, the overall society is even stronger due to the synergies and economies of scale.

Capitalism does not leave people high and dry, in fact the money is in such abundance and flowing so quickly, that it spreads around, and there's more of it, and more opportunities for each and every individual. Of course if someone doesn't want to work, or participate they can sit on their rear ends and do nothing, but then they will get exactly what they deserve, I don't see a problem with that. But apparently my acquaintance did.

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And he asked me; "what about the people who are mentally or physically challenged, what about them we just gonna leave them?" Oh, certainly not, and I can tell you that the mentally challenged or physically challenged in the United States of America do much better here than they would in any other country. Think about it for a second, think about this silly argument that somehow socialism is better because they care about people that capitalism isn't - that's nonsense.

And in practice, socialism doesn't do good for the average population, it makes everyone the same, and usually they're all poor. It doesn't build the type of middle-class that we have here in the United States, and there's nothing wrong with a strong work ethic, or a solid middle class. And there's certainly nothing wrong in the United States when it comes to our nonprofit sector, and all the volunteers and people who give their extra spendable money to such causes.

And to his point of Mentally or Physically Challenges, the reality is with greater economies of scale and abundance there is more low-cost left-overs for all. A farm which is run by capitalist methods is efficient because it rewards efficiency, one run by communist methods doesn't - so, the efficiency stops, along with all the left overs, thus, the communist farm one runs up against shortages.

Did you know I bought a 10-Lb. bag of potatoes this week at the grocery store - and get this; I didn't have to wait in line to do it, in fact, there were so many bags of potatoes that everyone could have bought 5, they'd still have some left. Why? Thanks to the chaos of capitalism! Indeed, hope you'll please consider all this, and if you'd like to add anything to this discussion please shoot me an e-mail. Even if you have a critique, I'm certainly ready to debate these points.

Why We Need Capitalism to Help the Poor

Why You Needed the Banks Bailed Out

Bailout Politics

I understand the anger that exists for the financial institutions in this country. One group gets bailed out for horrific risk management and individuals are left to be foreclosed on. However, what occurred under both Republican and Democratic administrations was critical to the country. As someone who works in financial services, I would describe it as America avoided becoming a Quaker state.

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Both major political parties have had a challenge explaining the bank bailouts to the American people. Considering they're politicians and not bankers I can understand that. The best way they've been able to handle describing it, is that the American economy would have been in much worse condition than it is now. For most people that's an abstract explanation of the events that occurred and what it's consequences were.

Lead Up to the Bailouts

During the lead up to the bailouts, I worked at one of the major banks (later laid off because of the crisis). I was there to see the fear people had when Washington Mutual went out of business. I was also there when people feared Wachovia would go out of business. The fear was gripping and I got to see the whites of people's eyes who had that fear. It scared me.

I was amazed to see Indymac Bank close its doors. Something I thought only happened in "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart. But here I was watching it happen with other people across the country.

I fielded questions and began to wonder about the true meaning of FDIC insurance and what it really meant to average Americans. Something I never gave much thought to before.

Why the Bailouts?

So you may ask, what do you think it really meant and why do you say we would have become a Quaker state? In the interest of simplicity, I'll list these questions and thoughts and ask that you consider its nationwide and global implications as it relates to the banks and the people and organizations they serve.

- What little cash that is left in circulation gets hoarded by those who have it
- No one can pay anybody
- No cash exists in ATMs
- Your favorite store has no money to buy more supplies
- No cash is available for the babysitter
- No paycheck or pension to cash
- Box stores can't process purchases by customers
- No place exists to get a mortgage
- No place exists to get a business loan
- No place exists to get a credit card
- No checking account to pay your bills
- What happens to the water supply and its maintenance?
- What happens to the power grid and its maintenance?
- What happens to communication networks and their maintenance?
- Instead of gold this country would have gone back to the barter system

Again, the argument has been why can't the government bailout individuals the same way they bailed out the banks. The cold hard truth, do these same things happen or worry you if I go bankrupt?

Why You Needed the Banks Bailed Out

Jail Records

Jail records are among the most important and the most sensitive data gathered by public institutions. The limits of access to court and jail records is one of the more battled issues concerning the freedom of information. For many people the ability to check if the strangely-acting neighbor is a known sex-offender, or if their new potential business partner has ever been sentenced for a financial fraud is an important mean of self-protection. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands people across the united States who at one time or another had problems with the law. Many of them after receiving the punishment started a new life. Revealing their past might cost them their jobs or families. A public and unlimited access to jail records would put them in constant danger even though they have already paid for their wrongdoings.

What most people miss however, is that the real problem with jail records lies elsewhere: in our practical ability to check them and then connect a record to a real person. What most people do not know is that there is no such thing as a truly nationwide jail record check. Even the FBI database does not cover the whole country or all kinds of crimes. The accessibility of many local databases is still limited and there are many counties that still do not offer a complete database of criminal records. To make situation even worse, we have to remember that jail records are only a small part of the problem. The fact that there are at three kinds of criminal records (arrest, criminal court, and corrections) only adds to the practical difficulty of the search. The fragmentation of the data makes checking jail records untrustworthy to say the least. We can easily confirm that someone is (or rather may be) a former criminal, but we can't really check if he or she is innocent or not.

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To make the situation even worse, jail records are just as prone to mistakes as anything else. While many jail records have a picture of an offender attached, there are still some who have only the person's name. What is more, human mistakes sometimes cause wrong names to be connected with the prison sentences. It does not happen very often, but since most companies offering access to jail records operate on databases with between 60 and 130 million entries each, even a 99.99% accuracy still leaves 6 to 13 thousand mistakes in a single database.

For all those practical reasons, any check of jail records gives us only partially complete data. While contacting a company providing jail record and criminal record checks is generally a good idea when we want to confirm our suspicions, the results may never be considered as final proofs. here is simple no way to see if someone is a good citizen or not. If you want to be sure, you need to perform a few other checks, including a social security number check in order to learn anything hard.

Jail Records