Trustdaily

I learned about the Armenian Genocide - or one of its  precursors " The Hamidian Massacres " or " The Adana Massacre " - when I was in third grade. There was an old abandoned house on the block - one of those older than the homes around it, that had either been a rent house until it became too decrepit to rent out, or whose elderly owner had died with no local heirs to help keep it up or care about its gradual decay. Windows were broken out, and someone had taken the front door, leaving it wide open, airy, well-lit with sunshine... and perfect for neighborhood children to explore. I don't remember whether I wandered through it with a friend or alone. It was empty except for a half-filled box of trinkets, cracked dishes.... and one very old book. Even back then, I read everything I could get my hands on. This book was old... I want to say the copyright date was 1909, but it could have been Bliss's "" Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities. A Reign of T...

If you invested $360 a month starting at age 20 at 6% compound interest, by the time you are 65, you will have $1,000,000.  In the same way, if you have paid in $180 a month in FICA tax for your Social Security (which your employer matches for a total of $360), starting at age 20, by the time you are 65, you could draw $1,000 a month for 83 years before the government had paid you a similar amount.  None of us are going to get back anything like what we would have if our FICA had been invested where Congress couldn't steal it. Don't let any politician get away with claiming otherwise: Congress needs to stop spending our retirement savings that we have been paying in all of our lives.

You might be surprised how easy it is to burn your own vine charcoal to use for drawing. I used wild grape vines, but you can use other non-poisonous vines or small sticks - even thin dowels will work. Experiment with the nontoxic materials available to you locally. While I burned mine in my wood stove, this technique can be used in a camp fire the next time you go camping, or in your charcoal grill.