If you are currently unemployed, or have been unemployed for much of the last 2-3 years,  carefully calculate when the starting quarters of eligibility for SS benefits began and when you will have accrued enough AGAIN (forget your 20+ years of prior employment cause the clock has restarted), and what quarter you plan to retire.  If you are 45+  odds are that unless you start a new job TOMORROW and never again are unemployed, you will not qualify for SS ever, at any age of retirement.  So if you don't have an IRA, 401(K) or a generous pension, you are probably facing an old age of poverty.  Even with them, you may be.

You see, I suspect the holding jobs hostage goes way beyond the petty partisan "I wanna get what I want and screw you."  It is about ensuring that there will be no "SS burden" from baby-boomers by wholesale disqualifying them, about ripping up the wealth building avenues for minorities that scare the upper scum, uh crust -- through taking your home, your bank account (through fees), your income stream, and forcing you to spend all the assets you have just to eat today.  The REVOLUTION has started.  The rest of us have revolted people like the KOCH brothers and the MURDOCHS of this nation by actually wanting to participate in our democracy, uh republic, uh society, uhm NATIONAL DIALOGUE.

The ultra wealthy started it.  It is class warfare,  If you don't belong to that privileged class (and Herman Cain, you do NOT as they pat you on your head and send you out to do their battles), you are its target..  You're the worm for these big fish.  Do not dream you matter to them.  

God Bless the USA, may she rest in peace.  She died while you were frittering your life away on idle entertainment, passionate religious distractions (from What would Jesus Do to anti-abortion rallies), petty daily concerns of your family, popular fiction about werewolves and vampires instead of thought-provoking essays and non-fiction, and silly Madison Avenue-stoked insecurities about having the "latest" fashion name on your clothes, shoes, car, etc.  I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU, but YOUR CHILDREN WILL INHERIT THE SCORCHED EARTH YOU HAVE PISSED AWAY!

I learned to read between the ages of 2 and 3.  My maternal grandfather, my beloved DeeDee, taught me to play dominoes before he died when I was 4.  My parents took me to symphonies (classical music in early childhood seems to have a relationship with academic success later in life, especially math).  When I started kindergarten, I was already through most of the Nancy Drew novels.  When I reached first grade, the teacher recommended that I be moved into 2nd grade after 6 weeks. I was and there it was that my teacher told my parents I had an uncanny math ability.  

While various poor teachers nearly sabotaged my math performance, and undoubtedly sabotaged my self-confidence in the subject, I eventually ended up in a graduate program (PhD) in Applied Statistics, where a professor told me I had the greatest natural heuristic abillity he'd ever seen.

I taught statistics as a college instructor, business math, and later in a private grades 6-12 school, geometry and algebra.  I have tutored people from age 5 to 55 all along the way.  So I know a little something about math, and about learning math.  I also know something about the FEAR of math, particularly algebra.  It is with that, and the latest report on the US performance in math and reading that came out today,  that I am creating yet another page to this website entitled The Math Language.  There I will post reports on math performance, resources for parents and students, hints, tips, tricks, and the occasional rant :).    I hope you enjoy it, use it if you need it, and leave me some comments please!