What if ordering pizza in the future was like this?

Apparently Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Frist has his story set up and ready to go. See, he finally sold all his stocks in Hospital Corporation of America [HCA], based in Nashville, Tennessee, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. He then sold of all his wife's stock in the company. He also ordered the sale of all the stocks of all his children. He completely sold everything associated to the chain that was founded by his dad. All his political career, he has been critcized for maintaining the holdings while dealing with legislation affecting the medical industry and managed care. So, he finally sold them.

And within a few weeks HCA announced that its second quarter earnings wouldn't meet Wall Street's expectations, and its stock lost 8.9% of its value. Only 9%? When he set up the trusts, Frist reported owning $5 million-$25 million in HCA stock, according to paperwork filed with the Senate ethics committee at the time. His wife, Karyn Frist, put at least $1 million in her own blind trust, and their three sons each had trusts established with more than $1 million of the company's stock, as well. Only 9% of all that is more than what Martha Stewart tried to save with her white-collar crime.

I would want to say it was good timing, but I just can't imagine his brother, who still sits on the board and is its largest shareholder, wouldn't give a little hint to his brother that he stood to lose a lot of money when word got out about the upcoming disappointing news. For those who don't get it, Martha Stewart went to jail for receiving this type of information in time to salvage a few dollars. It's insider trading and illegal.

So either Bill Frist is a crook, or he has a law-abiding sibling who didn't look out for his own brother's wealth.

Some of the new measures:

• Waiving some affirmative action rules for employers with federal contracts (helps Bush's friends, not the victims)
• Suspending rules that require federal contractors pay prevailing wages (helps Bush's friends, not the victims)
• Lifting environment restrictions on new refineries (helps Bush's friends, not the victims)
• Limit victim's right to sue (helps Bush's friends, definitely not the victims)
• Create tax-advantaged enterprise zones (helps Bush's friends, not the victims)

Read the complete article from the Wall Street Journal about ALL the new measures.

Do you know how old you REALLY are? I stumbled onto this web site which has a short survey you take (go to Health Tools in the menu and select the RealAge Test) asking questions about your health, medical history, lifestyle, stress & social support, nutrition and physical activity, and then it determines what your real age is compared to your actual age.

My real age? Let's just say I need to work on my nutrition and start exercising more.

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