The link for that portion of the White House’s website may be found by clicking here. I hope that Americans really take this opportunity to send messages to the White House to talk about the things that are affecting them everyday. Personally, I’ve sent two messages to the White House so far – both of them dealing with a tax issue related to student loans.

For those of you who have student loans, you’ll know that you can deduct the interest paid on your loans on your taxes. The problem is that you can only deduct up to $2,500 per tax year. Well hey, if you have massive student loan debt, you may be paying upwards of $5,000 or $6,000 per year in interest alone!

If you’re out there in the world and making good money, but are saddled with gigantic student loan debt, you know that being able to deduct the entire amount of interest paid on student loans would be a great way to put more dollars back in the pockets of the working class…the very people who would not have been able to attend college if it were not for those loans. So this is what I’ve been sending Obama – that you can go ahead and fix the economy, but if people with massive student loan debt are still spending an exorbitant portion of their income on this interest, then fixing the economy won’t matter.

One way to mitigate this problem is allowing Borrowers to deduct the entire amount of their student loan interest. If you agree, here is a short message that you, too, can send to the White House on the contact page listed above:

Tax policies should be revised so that 100% of annual interest paid on student loans can be deducted on personal taxes. Many Borrowers with high student loan debts pay a high portion of their annual, post-tax income as interest on student loans. Currently, only $2,500 may be deducted annually. Borrowers with larger student loan debts routinely pay upwards of $5,000 each year in interest. Allowing the total amount of interest paid to be deducted will better position these citizens in the economy.

You’ll see that you can only submit 500 characters worth of a message to the White House (which makes sense). The italicized blurb above is 500 characters on the dot. So if this is something that you can agree with, please copy and paste the text above into the contact form on the White House website!

The Giants have not been creative enough in their play calling and with Eli Manning having a so-so game so far, it would be a good idea for Kevin Gilbride to pull some type of card from up his sleeve. I’m not talking about trick plays because I hate that shit in the NFL, but something other than Jacobs this way and Jacobs that way.

The other observation I have about this game is the penalties. I hate when the referees become a third team on the field. Let the Giants play the Eagles and stay out of the damn way, for Christ’s Sake. There’s nothing worse than when two good teams like the Giants and Eagles get together and the game is marred to any degree by the officiating staff.

Anyway, here’s hoping for the Giants to rally and take control in the second half!

I’m also looking forward to seeing the great Eddie T – the webmaster of TBLWrestling.com. Eddie and I have formed a great friendship while he’s operated my wrestling website, but I’ve never had the opportunity to actually meet him. I’m looking forward to getting a beer with him on Tuesday.

One of my former New Jersey guys also moved out to California so I’m happy that I get to see him, too!

And, of course, let’s not forget that I’m going to be in Long Beach, California. I’m looking forward to getting some quality beach time and looking at the lovely ladies that I hear so much about!

Anyway, I’ll be back in New Jersey and back blogging again starting the following Tuesday, August 5th. Until then, go back and read some of the archives!

Condolences continue to come in and I’m very thankful for them. I am extremely grateful that I have such caring friends. It’s very comforting to know that for both me and my family.

So what is “getting back to normal” besides getting back into the office? Well, I watched a few of the latest summer movie releases – which will all be reviewed in due time on this blog and JerseySmarts.com. I also got back to looking for a new place to live since I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of August. There’s a slow, aggravating process for you…

I have not had the opportunity to get back into the gym yet, though I am really looking forward to that day. The reason I haven’t been able to get back in yet relates to my sleeping patterns – they’ve been terrible for the last 2 weeks (as you could imagine). I actually got to work an hour late today because I chose to sleep in a little bit; if I had another day in the office today like I did yesterday, it would just be a waste of time.

My Usable Web Solutions, LLC company is on hold for at least another week or so. I’m just not ready for the high level of analytical and logical thinking that it takes to design websites. Soon, but not right yet. That was also applied towards my contributions to my two wrestling sites, TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com. Thankfully, both sites are webmastered by competent individuals who are more than capable of handling them in my absence. There’s still a lot of work to do with XHeadlines.com yet, though…

I’ve got a bunch of blog entries prepared in “draft” format that I have to revise before posting so be on the lookout for that. Many of you know that I spend a good deal of my free time working as a volunteer for Sigma Pi Fraternity. I have not had the opportunity to get back into the advising mindset for the Fraternity yet, but I plan to do so after I attend Sigma Pi University next week in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee. I have 2 presentations that I am scheduled to deliver while in Nashville which I think I will be up to doing. One of them is completely put together and the other is in its final stages. Wish me luck!

I’ll be headed back home one day this weekend to spend time with my Mother and brothers. Before I left at the end of last week, my younger brother and I did a lot of cleaning and purging with my Mom. Nothing major – just a lot of the junk that was laying around our backyard and some of the stacks of magazines in our living room. My Mom has a new vacuum up there and it works wonders on her living room floor so we wound up rearranging the living room after moving all of the pieces so she could vacuum.

Anyway, be on the lookout for more “stuff” in the coming days.