Dear AARP: You're wrong. We're done.

I never dreamed AARP would one day tacitly encourage Congress to compromise those benefits.

About a week ago, it was reported that AARP is open to discussing the modification of Social Security, including benefit cuts and raises in the Social Security payroll tax. Your spokesperson said AARP merely wants a seat at the table of discussion and that its new position is no big deal. Wrong. Coming from an organization that has always stood firm on this issue, it’s earth-shattering — a point immediately clear to reform hawks, who already have called your shift a “game-changer” comparable to “the Arctic icecap cracking.”

Whether or not those terms apply, it is clear AARP is wavering. And that’s enough to strike fear in the heart of anyone who expects to be dependent on Social Security in retirement.

I have long been concerned that AARP’s for-profit arm would negatively impact the organization’s broader original mission. In 2008, according to your financial statement, AARP was paid $652 million in royalties from insurance companies for referring AARP members. You also received $120 million in advertising revenue from your publications.

I’m not the only one who has feared that those kinds of numbers could distract AARP from its primary mission: to speak for the critical economic needs of its 37 million members.

And now I wonder if it has.

Bargain rates on insurance, hotels and restaurants are all very nice. A glossy magazine with medical news, recipes, a crossword puzzle and articles on motorcycle-riding seniors is also nice. But AARP’s focus has always been — and always should be — its advocacy for the two programs that spell the difference between solvency and poverty for most retired Americans: Social Security and Medicare.

To waver on either of these is leaving your membership without its most powerful, and sometimes its only, collective voice.

One of the articles in the newest issue of AARP, which arrived Monday, addresses “the three myths” of Social Security: that the program is broke, that its trust fund assets are worthless, that individuals could invest better on their own.

The fourth myth, apparently, is that AARP will always fight any attempts to tamper with Social Security.

Seat Mod on my 83 750 - Honda Shadow Forums : Shadow Motorcycle Forum

Yeah, i tried riding around with them off and I just didn't feel comfortable not having any turn signals. I've only been riding for a few weeks now. But, the new ones come today, and my higway pegs tomorrow. I'm also going to try and redo the foam on the seat again. I'll get some better foam and try and make it very thin so that I sit lower. I also started taking the stock mufflers off. I will try running like that for a while and see about getting some cheap mufflers to add so that it has a louder sound. I don't want to pi$$ off the neighbors, but i would like to have some sound to them. I rode by my house's open windows when i first got it and asked my wife "Did you hear me ride by?" She said "Nope". I even got on the gas too!

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