Why I Only Donate To Smaller Charities...

                                                       

I had some kids knock on my door yesterday and said they were raising money for their school.  I read the envelope that had all the info on it (this was also the envelope they kept their money collected in).  I looked in the envelope and their was three $1 bills in it.  I asked them how long they were walking around and they said over 2 hours.  I smiled and asked them how much I should donate.  They smiled back and said, "As much as you want Sir."  I asked them if $20 sounds good, and they got super excited and said, "Yeah!"  I gave them the $20 and they got on their bikes and rode to the next house.  Now if these kids were raising money for a GIANT charity, I would not have given them a single penny!  Why not you ask?  Because the money would not go where it actually needs to go but in to some Presidents' or Board Members' pockets instead! 

Some of these mega charities members' salaries are sickening.  It just doesn't make sense to me that people can become multimillionaires by starting and/or running a charity.  It kind of ruins the whole concept of charity when these CEO's are pulling a giant salary.  Now, I totally understand that running a charity is a full time job and you should be paid.  That concept I get,  however what I don't get is how people can morally take a ballooned salary when they're main focus is helping people. Let me give you some examples.

NAACP CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous earns $275,000 per year
World Vision CEO Richard Stearns earns $380,000 per year
Food For The Poor CEO Robin Mahfood earns $390, 000 per year
Susan G. Komen CEO Nancy Brinker earns $417,000 per year
World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts earns $427,000 per year
Saint Judes CEO David McKee earns $513,000 per year
American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin earns $915,000 per year
American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern earns $1,000,000 per year

The list goes on and on.  Again, I get that it's a job and that these charities need some super smart people to guide them but some of these salaries are absolutely ridiculous!  I also understand that some of these charities bring in mega dollars, some over $1Trillion a year, but why waste all this money?  You mean to tell me that you couldn't get people that are just as smart, and just as effective in running a charity that would do it for WAY less money?  You know, a CEO that actually cares about the CAUSE and not the PAYCHECK.  It blows my mind that Nancy Brinker has gotten absolutely filthy rich at the expense of her Sister dying from breast cancer.  I am not saying that the Susan G. Komen foundation doesn't do great things or that it's a bad charity but for her to take $417,000 every year and put it right in her pocket is nothing but ABSURD to me.  I'm not going to post any pictures, but go ahead and Google some of these CEO's houses.  It will make you nauseous.

For every MEGA CHARITY, there are a handful of ones that do great things that actually have CEOs that do it for reasons other than MONEY.  Next time you are thinking of donating money to a charity do some research.  You can go to www.charitynavigator.org and actually see what they are doing with your money.  They have a scoring system and a star rating for every charity.  You might actually find out that the smaller local cancer, feed the poor, or environmental charity will actually put your money towards their cause and not their mortgage payments...


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Does The Moon Rotate???

                                                     


Absolutely.  This is why we always see "the face" of the Moon.  Many people think that the moon is just sitting still, but if it was we would see the far side of the Moon as it orbited the Earth.  The reason why we see only the face of the Moon all the time is actually quite awesome.  It's because of Tidal Synchronization (or Synchronous Rotation).  The Earth has pulled the Moon in to us with its gravitational pull to synchronize its orbit around Earth with the same exact amount of time it takes for the Moon to rotate.  In other words, it takes 27.3 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and it takes 27.3 days for the Moon to complete a full rotation.

This actually was hard for me to understand at first but this little experiment helped a lot.  Take two oranges (or balls, or anything round) and use one as the Earth model and one as the Moon model.  Draw an X on the Moon model (this will represent the Face of the Moon).  Put the Earth model on a table .  Now take the Moon model and move it in a circle, orbit, around Earth model about 1ft away and keep the X always facing the Earth model.  Surprise! You'll see that to keep the X facing the Earth model, you have to rotate the Moon model as it goes around the Earth model.  Also, you will see the Moon model will have to rotate at the same exact time as it orbits the Earth for us to always see the face.  In other words, by the time you get the Moon model to make on full orbit around the Earth model, it will also make one full rotation itself.  If the Moon did not rotate, we would eventually see all side of the Moon.  Cool huh?

In fact, almost all of every planet's moons actually do this same thing.  Hyperion, a moon of Saturn is not tidally synchronized because of the gravitational pull of the other moons around it.  It is in a constant struggle for it.  Once it starts to get close to being synchronized, another moon's gravitational pull changes it's rotational state.  Poor, Hyperion...


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Ohhhhh, N. Korea. My first rant...

Why is it that every time I read the News or watch it on T.V. I see something about the N. Korean leadership finding another reason to be assholes??  It seems like every single week they find another reason to threaten the entire world with nuclear weapons, yet they have never even proved that they have a way to launch one long range.  I am sure you heard about their failed attempt to test a "satellite launching rocket" aka "nuclear warhead rocket" last week that failed miserably and crashed in to the ocean.  I am also sure many American Scientists LOL'd at them when it happened.

They brag about how huge their Army is, 1.2 million strong.  Well guess, what?  If you can't afford to feed them during a war then what's the point?  They are just a bunch of power hungry thugs that will never be taken seriously in the World.  They are only pissed that other Asian States are prosperous and have left the Revolutionary Style of operation in the past and have moved on to bigger better things. N. Korea just keeps holding on to it for some reason.  They are like a teenager that won't give up it's favorite stuffed animal from when they were a baby; even though it is grungy, dirty and constantly makes him sick he still wants to go to bed with it every night.


Well, N. Korea, here is some advice from an average American Citizen.

1.  Shut up!  No one takes you seriously so stop going public with your nonsense comments of "condemnation" and your constant threats of "retaliation."  No one has done anything to you in 50 years, what are you threatening retaliation for?

2.  Feed your damn kids!  80% of your country's children are malnourished AND 1/4 of your entire population needs food aid.  Sooner or later your people will revolt just for the mere fact that they are hungry.

3.  You would get annihilated.  Look around you.  No one likes you.  Do you really think China has got your back?  I don't think so.  They are prospering and have too much to lose.  They say they like you and have your back, but when you constantly embarrass yourself and are blatantly showing that your leaders are BAT SHIT CRAZY, good luck getting their war support.

4.  Your weapons suck.  Seriously, go outside right now and look at your tanks and your fighter jets.  Now go back inside and google pictures and information about the U.S. tanks and fighter jets. Does the word obsolete pop in your head?  I bet it does.  Go ahead and google our Navy too while you're at it...

5.  Not even YOUR people like you.  Tens of thousands of your own people sneak into China every year to get away from your crazy Government and your finger pointing Military style.

Look, I am all for being independent, but I kinda take it personal when the N. Korean government just traded their failed rocket test for MILLIONS OF TONS of food aid from the U.S. and then have the AUDACITY to threaten us with RETALIATION because of it!  The U.S. agreed in February to give them food aid but has now said, "Sorry!" after their rocket launch.  Meanwhile, the Chinese Government just updated their Facebook status with, "SMDH..."


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Happy Tax Day! Did You Get A Refund?

                                     


Ahhhhh...it feels so amazing to have the Government send you a check in the mail doesn't it?  Most of us just can't wait until tax time so we can get a fat check from the Feds and the State.  The funny thing is, none of us should be getting a refund at all.  All a refund is, is the Government saying, "Hey, you gave us too much.  Thanks for giving us a loan at 0% interest, now here is your money back."  It's kind of like buying a gum ball with a $100 bill and WILLINGLY and KNOWINGLY letting the clerk keep your change for a year.  Sounds pretty dumb huh?

I think we actually lose track of what's actually happening.  Why do we get so excited when we get a big refund?  It's already our money.  It's not like the Government is giving it to us.  It's ours, we gave them too much and they make us go through a lengthily process to get it back.  None of it makes too much sense.

It's very easy to avoid letting the Government borrow money.  In fact, last year they issued over $300B in refunds.  That means they got an interest free loan from us for $300,000,000,000.  I'm sure they used that money to make money so what do we get out of it?  Nothing.  The only thing we can do is make a few changes to our own taxes to avoid the Government taking advantage of our money.  You can change your withholding amounts and you can do quarterly estimates..  This way if you owe a little at the end of the year, you can pay it with out a penalty.

For some people overpaying their taxes is good.  It's like an untouchable savings account for the year.  Some people need the Government to hold money so they don't spend it.  This makes sense doesn't it?  If you have money spending problems, just over pay your taxes a bit and at the end of every year you may have $3K-$4K saved that you weren't able to access and blow it on that new TV or that new Coach purse.  Kinda sweet huh?


Cheers!


K.A. Ball