Coincidence

On NCIS, there are rules that Jethro Leroy Gibbs follows and teaches his team as a method of being the best at what they do.

Rule #39: There is no such thing as coincidence.

Based on evidence presented to me today, I must concur.

On the Instapundit Blog today:

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

I QUESTION THE TIMING: A reader who works at Yale emails:

I found it interesting that this email came out today from Yale benefits:

Dear Colleagues:
We would like to make you aware of a significant federally mandated change which will impact Yale’s healthcare flexible spending account benefit. Effective January 1, 2013, as a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the annual contribution limit will be capped at $2,500. Currently, the maximum amount of pre-tax dollars you can set aside in a healthcare flexible spending account is $12,000.

As a participant who contributed $2,500 or more in 2012, we encourage you to keep this in mind as you begin to plan for your 2013 out-of-pocket medical, dental and vision expenses. You will soon have an opportunity to re-enroll in the flexible spending account benefit plan during Annual Benefits Enrollment (December 3-17). As a reminder, you have until March 15, 2013 to incur expenses against your 2012 contributions, and until April 30, 2013 to submit claims those for reimbursement. We hope that this grace period is helpful for maximizing your flexible spending benefit for 2012.

If you have any further questions, please contact an Employee Services representative.
What interesting timing! I did know about this, as a former CPA/tax accountant, but how many did?

Today my husband came home and told me that his boss informed him today that a layoff is planned. Small aerospace/manufacturing plant.   We were worried before the election that if the direction didn’t change, we’d face an ugly economic future. It may already becoming true for our family.  

 I think a lot of stuff will be coming out over the next few weeks and months that was carefully kept off the radar before Election Day.

--------------------------------

Then today, I get this from a shipmate working out here in the AFGHN Sandbox:

Hi - Hope you're well

We just started open enrollment with my company; so I asked the benefits guy if I do nothing will all benefits remain the same-----a resounding yes was his answer. He did however advise me to go on the website to review the benefits to ensure all was OK.---so I did

All benefits were defaulted to the ones I have had for 3 yrs----good news; until the last page; that was the calculation page. My contribution for 3 years has been $106.00 per month; but the new contribution effective Jan. 2013 will be $293.00. 

 

That's almost a 200% increase.

So I e-mailed the benefits guy to verify this and of course his answer was "YES--WE'VE BEEN HIT WITH A HUGE RATE INCREASE'

A huge rate increase????????????????? can you say OBAMA-CARE

this is only the beginning

please share with your readers (and delete my name)

 

The idea that this all was "coincidence" is not only naive, but demonstrates a level of cluelessness that is scary.

This was part of the plan all along and people were dumb enough to vote for it.

Might be best to brush on these - we all might need them to deal with what will be coming:

It's a small world after all

On my recent return home for vacation, the United flight that I was scheduled on out of Dubai to the USA was cancelled due to mechanical issues.  That meant 320 passengers had to scramble for new flights.

While I was in line waiting to get rebooked, I spoke to the Gentleman behind me who was traveling home due to the death of his Father.  I was unhappy due to the delay of the cancelled flight, but this guy's pain was worse.  When you are far from home and learn about the loss of a parent, every second's delay is an eternity.

We both got new tickets and went our separate ways.  I got home and hoped that he had done the same in time for the funeral.

On the way back, I wound up staying in Dubai for a day as you fly into Dubai one day, and fly back out to AFGHN the next morning.  I am sitting outside the hotel waiting for the hotel bus when who walks out of the hotel but my fellow traveler who I last saw on the way home.

Talk about your small world....we discussed our trips home and all the issues of what occurred during the last two weeks.  It was a strange coincidence that two travelers would be on the exact same schedule twice w/o knowing it, especially traveling this far from the US.

It really is a small world even though it seems a lot farther when you are delayed from traveling as scheduled.