In fact, 34 Dems voted No.
Thanks, Walt and the rest.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Stupak's Competition
Right to Life. I believe in the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Paramount is life. From conception to death, all human life must be considered sacred and must be protected.
-Dan Benisheck, running against Stupak.
-Dan Benisheck, running against Stupak.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Fess Parker Dies
I was nine years old when Walt Disney introduced Fess Parker as Davy Crockett on Disney's Sunday night TV show, Disneyland. Within weeks, we were all running around in ersatz coonskin caps, toy flintlock rifles, and singing all umtillion verses of "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier." One of the first 45RPM records I bought with my allowance was that song. I'm sure I drove my parents nuts.
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so he knew every tree
Killed him a Bar when he was only three!
Davy, Davy Crockett,
King of the Wild Frontier
Davy, Davy Crockett,
King of the Wild Frontier!
He was an actor whose personal life seemed to be as sound as the values Davy Crockett stood for, at least as Walt Disney presented them. I just hated it when he died in the Alamo, but my mom told me that we were related to Col. Travis, and that helped some. Davy's motto was "Be sure you're right; then go ahead." His flintlock's name was "Betsy" and she had her own song, "Bang, Went Ol' Betsy."
Bang Went Ol' Betsy
I owe my life to Betsy
I can travel far and wide
With Betsy by my side!
A few years later John Wayne starred in another telling of the Alamo, and as Davy Crockett. He was good, but it should have been Fess Parker. Only the fact that it was John Wayne prevented me from walking right out.
Frontierland at Disneyland, the amusement park, and at Disney World in Orlando were based on the Davy Crockett series.
Fess Parker was a University of Texas grad. That sounds only right.
And, no, Carol is not related to Davy Crockett. At least not that we know of.
The Grove Struggles
Today's Herald. A victim, in part, of the bursting of the real estate bubble: The rents got too high; Cocowalk's new owner paid to much; and now stores are half-empty. The article mentions commercial cannibalism by other, newer developments.
I would note that the nearest MetroRail station is not within walking distance of the Grove. Mary Brickell Village, on the other hand, is quite close to both MetroRail and the PeopleMover. Brickell's overbuilding was mainly residential, although there is some new retail. Now the condo and apartment prices for new residences in the off-but-not-too-off-Brickell area are fairly reasonable. The South Miami retail district, which has had its own struggles, is doing fairly well, as the article notes: it is also near a MetrolRail station, the U, and has a new Whole Foods.
I would note that the nearest MetroRail station is not within walking distance of the Grove. Mary Brickell Village, on the other hand, is quite close to both MetroRail and the PeopleMover. Brickell's overbuilding was mainly residential, although there is some new retail. Now the condo and apartment prices for new residences in the off-but-not-too-off-Brickell area are fairly reasonable. The South Miami retail district, which has had its own struggles, is doing fairly well, as the article notes: it is also near a MetrolRail station, the U, and has a new Whole Foods.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Killing Buzz
I'm a little late getting around to this, but I went on my Gmail account, scrolled down to the bottom, pressed "Turn off Buzz," and then followed through on killing the connection.
Speaking of "Arrogance Quotients", there seems to be no limit in the Google home office. (Although I will give them credit for pushing back on Communist China.)
Speaking of "Arrogance Quotients", there seems to be no limit in the Google home office. (Although I will give them credit for pushing back on Communist China.)
Mr. Obama's Problem is Not a Failure to Communicate
In Marvin Olasky's excellent column in the March 13, 2010, issue of World Magazine, entitled "A Better Path," he writes:
Now the big question is whether President Obama will think that his problem is merely a failure to communicate. He should read the work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto Polar, who describes [in his book, The Other Path: the Economic Answer to Terrorism]the "tremendous conceptual error" of his country's leaders in words that should make the Obama administration tremble: "the assumption that, in an urban society swamped by migration, a ruler can know everything that is going on in the country and that a new social order can be built on this presumed knowledge."
As de Soto notes, "In such a society, with millions of people whose specialization makes them interdependent, with complex systems of communication between producers and buyers, creditors and debtors, employers and employees, with a constantly evolving technology, with competition and a daily flow of information from other countries, it is physically impossible to be familiar with and directly run even a small fraction of national activities."
Anyone without a high AQ—arrogance quotient—knows this.
Now the big question is whether President Obama will think that his problem is merely a failure to communicate. He should read the work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto Polar, who describes [in his book, The Other Path: the Economic Answer to Terrorism]the "tremendous conceptual error" of his country's leaders in words that should make the Obama administration tremble: "the assumption that, in an urban society swamped by migration, a ruler can know everything that is going on in the country and that a new social order can be built on this presumed knowledge."
As de Soto notes, "In such a society, with millions of people whose specialization makes them interdependent, with complex systems of communication between producers and buyers, creditors and debtors, employers and employees, with a constantly evolving technology, with competition and a daily flow of information from other countries, it is physically impossible to be familiar with and directly run even a small fraction of national activities."
Anyone without a high AQ—arrogance quotient—knows this.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Robotic Surgery
I have two friends with prostate cancer. For one of them, the recommendation is surgery, the other radiation. The surgery recommended for the one is robotic surgery at South Miami Hospital. The Herald has a good article this morning on the subject of robotic surgery. Be sure to read the article to the very end, if you are interested, as it quotes critics of the surgery, including Michael J. Barry of Massachusetts General.
Keller's "The Importance of Hell"
I had apparently given one of the newer men in our Friday breakfast group the impression that I was weak-in-the-knees about hell. I don’t know exactly what I said that may have given him that impression, but I do recall that I referred to the “lake of fire” as a “metaphor,” and it seemed to concern him that I didn't see it "literally."
The next Friday he brought me a copy of an article by Tim Keller, entitled The Importance of Hell, as a corrective, I think. (The article is well worth reading, and can be found in its entirely at the link.)
In the article, Keller writes in part:
Virtually all commentators and theologians believe that the Biblical images of fire and outer darkness are metaphorical . . . Even Jonathan Edwards pointed out that the Biblical language for hell was symbolic, but, he added “when metaphors are used in Scripture about spiritual things . . . they fall short of the literal truth.”
Keller makes it plain that separation from God is such an awful state that it is beyond description. Metaphors, then, are the only thing Jesus could resort to in order to explain how awful it is.
Dealing with the metaphor of fire and darkness and the like has significance in terms of our personal evangelism. Keller states later in the article:
I’ve found that only stressing the symbols of hell (fire and darkness) in preaching rather than going into what the symbols refer to (eternal, spiritual decomposition) actually prevents modern people from finding hell a deterrent. Some years ago I remember a man who said that talk about the fires of hell simply didn’t scare him. It seemed too far-fetched, even silly. So I read him lines from C.S. Lewis:
“Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others . . . but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of Gold ‘sending us’ to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell until it is nipped in the bud.”
To my surprise he got very quiet and said, “Now that scares me to death.”
As a “modern person,” I can tell you that this scares me to death too. Sometimes I think that I am mostly grumble already! But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57)
The next Friday he brought me a copy of an article by Tim Keller, entitled The Importance of Hell, as a corrective, I think. (The article is well worth reading, and can be found in its entirely at the link.)
In the article, Keller writes in part:
Virtually all commentators and theologians believe that the Biblical images of fire and outer darkness are metaphorical . . . Even Jonathan Edwards pointed out that the Biblical language for hell was symbolic, but, he added “when metaphors are used in Scripture about spiritual things . . . they fall short of the literal truth.”
Keller makes it plain that separation from God is such an awful state that it is beyond description. Metaphors, then, are the only thing Jesus could resort to in order to explain how awful it is.
Dealing with the metaphor of fire and darkness and the like has significance in terms of our personal evangelism. Keller states later in the article:
I’ve found that only stressing the symbols of hell (fire and darkness) in preaching rather than going into what the symbols refer to (eternal, spiritual decomposition) actually prevents modern people from finding hell a deterrent. Some years ago I remember a man who said that talk about the fires of hell simply didn’t scare him. It seemed too far-fetched, even silly. So I read him lines from C.S. Lewis:
“Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others . . . but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of Gold ‘sending us’ to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell until it is nipped in the bud.”
To my surprise he got very quiet and said, “Now that scares me to death.”
As a “modern person,” I can tell you that this scares me to death too. Sometimes I think that I am mostly grumble already! But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
"Lars and the Real Girl"
Carol read the review of this movie at the Christianity Today website, we ordered the film from Netflix, and saw it last night. Despite the unusual premise (very shy young man orders a life-size sex doll over the internet and then has a chaste relationship with "her"), it will grab your heart and not quite break it.
Furthermore, it makes Christians look good. That's probably even more unusual than the premise.
Furthermore, it makes Christians look good. That's probably even more unusual than the premise.
Anatomy & Physiology Camp
This sounds like fun!
The purpose of these camps is to enable 9th - 12th grade students to better understand human anatomy and physiology by engaging in a variety of unique, in-depth, hands-on experiments, labs, and assessments . . . and have fun doing it! There are no prerequisites for attending this camp.
Anatomy and Physiology Camp is appropriate for all high school age students but is especially geared toward students interested in careers such as medicine, physical therapy, physician's assistant, dentistry, nursing, biology, exercise science, sports medicine, chiropractic, athletic training, nutrition, forensics, etc
And all from a Christian worldview.
The purpose of these camps is to enable 9th - 12th grade students to better understand human anatomy and physiology by engaging in a variety of unique, in-depth, hands-on experiments, labs, and assessments . . . and have fun doing it! There are no prerequisites for attending this camp.
Anatomy and Physiology Camp is appropriate for all high school age students but is especially geared toward students interested in careers such as medicine, physical therapy, physician's assistant, dentistry, nursing, biology, exercise science, sports medicine, chiropractic, athletic training, nutrition, forensics, etc
And all from a Christian worldview.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Goths, Spain, and Bibles
When Carol and I visited Spain with Mary in April of 2008, one of the highlights was Toledo. As our guidebook reported: "In a landscape of abrasive desolation, Toledo sits on a rocky mound isolated on three sides by a looping gorge of the Rio Tajo. Every available inch of this outcrop has been built upon: churches, synagogues, mosques and houses are heaped upon one another in a haphazard spiral which the cobbled lanes infiltrate as best they can." We had a very nice hotel, located a vegetarian restaurant with tasty food, and saw terrific sights, about which we posted a little here.
Among the sights was Toledo Cathedral. There at the cathedral we learned a little more about the Visigoths, because a mass in the "Gothic rite" continues to be celebrated there. In Cordova, we had first learned about the Goths at one of the museums. This Germanic tribe had ruled Spain before they were driven from power by the Moors. They were Christian, and their sect persisted during Islam's rule, to emerge on the other side of history when Isabella drove the Muslims from Spain. After some tension between those who followed the Gothic Rite and the Catholics, they made their peace. On Thursdays one could go to the Toledo Cathedral and celebrate the Gothic mass.
I am reading Metzger and Ehrman's The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (Fourth Edition), and today I read there an account of the Gothic Version of the Bible:
Shortly after the middle of the fourth century, Ulfilas, often called the "apostle to the Goths," translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic. For this purpose, he created the Gothic alphabet and reduced the spoken language to written form. The Gothic version is the earliest known literary monument in a Germanic dialect.
As I read this fascinating book, it becomes evident that the development of literacy in the Western world was propelled by the Bible. That is, there was such a thirst for the Gospel, the Acts, the Pauline and Catholic epistles, that there developed profound advances in the technology of books (moving from scrolls to codices, that is to books), the adoption of a cursive form of writing Greek to replace the block form that made copying so slow, even to the invention of written languages (such as that which was a precursor of German), and the rise of a class of educated people who were not necessarily among the nobility. All of this a thousand years before the printing press, itself an invention the crucial market for which was the production of Bibles.
MORE:
With the exception of St. Jerome, more is known of the life and work of SS. Cyril and Methodius, the apostles to the Slavs, than of any other translators of an ancient version of the Bible. Sons of a wealthy official in Slavonica, they are credited with the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, as well as the so-called Cyrillic alphabet. Soon after the middle of the ninth century, they began translating the Gospels (probably in the form of a Greek lectionary) into Old Bulgarian, commonly called Old Slavonic. - Metzger and Ehrman, op cit., at p. 121
Among the sights was Toledo Cathedral. There at the cathedral we learned a little more about the Visigoths, because a mass in the "Gothic rite" continues to be celebrated there. In Cordova, we had first learned about the Goths at one of the museums. This Germanic tribe had ruled Spain before they were driven from power by the Moors. They were Christian, and their sect persisted during Islam's rule, to emerge on the other side of history when Isabella drove the Muslims from Spain. After some tension between those who followed the Gothic Rite and the Catholics, they made their peace. On Thursdays one could go to the Toledo Cathedral and celebrate the Gothic mass.
I am reading Metzger and Ehrman's The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (Fourth Edition), and today I read there an account of the Gothic Version of the Bible:
Shortly after the middle of the fourth century, Ulfilas, often called the "apostle to the Goths," translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic. For this purpose, he created the Gothic alphabet and reduced the spoken language to written form. The Gothic version is the earliest known literary monument in a Germanic dialect.
As I read this fascinating book, it becomes evident that the development of literacy in the Western world was propelled by the Bible. That is, there was such a thirst for the Gospel, the Acts, the Pauline and Catholic epistles, that there developed profound advances in the technology of books (moving from scrolls to codices, that is to books), the adoption of a cursive form of writing Greek to replace the block form that made copying so slow, even to the invention of written languages (such as that which was a precursor of German), and the rise of a class of educated people who were not necessarily among the nobility. All of this a thousand years before the printing press, itself an invention the crucial market for which was the production of Bibles.
MORE:
With the exception of St. Jerome, more is known of the life and work of SS. Cyril and Methodius, the apostles to the Slavs, than of any other translators of an ancient version of the Bible. Sons of a wealthy official in Slavonica, they are credited with the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, as well as the so-called Cyrillic alphabet. Soon after the middle of the ninth century, they began translating the Gospels (probably in the form of a Greek lectionary) into Old Bulgarian, commonly called Old Slavonic. - Metzger and Ehrman, op cit., at p. 121
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Change: Removing the Shoe, Shooting the Foot
One reason that so many of our jobs have "moved overseas" is because of the way we tax the US corporations who create those jobs. If a US corporation has its operations division here in the US, the corporation is subject to income tax on the profit the people in those jobs produce. However, if the corporation moves those operations overseas, then it can escape the US corporate income tax on those earnings, at least until it decides to "repatriate" those earnings, which may be never.
There is double taxation on corporate earnings, as you may know. (This applies to "C Corporations" not to "S Corporations" which small businesses use.) The income is taxed at the corporate level first. Then, when what is left over of a corporation's earnings is distributed to the shareholders as dividends, the shareholder is taxed. The corporation gets no deduction for what it distributes to the owners. So an earnings dollar is taxed twice, once at the corporate level and once at the shareholder level. By putting operations overseas, however, the US corporation defers indefinitely the tax at the corporate level.
There is change in the air! You might think that the change is to reduce the negative impact of double taxation and encourage US corporations to bring their offshore operations back to the Homeland. Such a thing would surely help the US economy, no?
It would help the economy, but that's not the change that Washington has in mind. For one thing, the tax on dividends will go back up next year. And, for another, and this is big change, there is a movement to tax US corporations on their "worldwide" income, whether or not the US corporation chooses to bring the overseas income back home. Will that bring the jobs back home? Not so much, I think.
How may the tax on a US corporation's worldwide earnings be avoided? Here's an idea, let's not be a US corporation anymore. There's change for you. This is exactly what Rupert Murdock seem to be contemplating with News Corporation. He is moving News Corporation to Dubai. There is nothing in the article at the link about this motive, but my bet is that the prospective change in the US corporate tax system is behind it.
Hardly a great American, one might say of Murdock. But America was built on entrepreneurial spirit and a distaste for taxes. I would say, then, that he is a great American.
There is double taxation on corporate earnings, as you may know. (This applies to "C Corporations" not to "S Corporations" which small businesses use.) The income is taxed at the corporate level first. Then, when what is left over of a corporation's earnings is distributed to the shareholders as dividends, the shareholder is taxed. The corporation gets no deduction for what it distributes to the owners. So an earnings dollar is taxed twice, once at the corporate level and once at the shareholder level. By putting operations overseas, however, the US corporation defers indefinitely the tax at the corporate level.
There is change in the air! You might think that the change is to reduce the negative impact of double taxation and encourage US corporations to bring their offshore operations back to the Homeland. Such a thing would surely help the US economy, no?
It would help the economy, but that's not the change that Washington has in mind. For one thing, the tax on dividends will go back up next year. And, for another, and this is big change, there is a movement to tax US corporations on their "worldwide" income, whether or not the US corporation chooses to bring the overseas income back home. Will that bring the jobs back home? Not so much, I think.
How may the tax on a US corporation's worldwide earnings be avoided? Here's an idea, let's not be a US corporation anymore. There's change for you. This is exactly what Rupert Murdock seem to be contemplating with News Corporation. He is moving News Corporation to Dubai. There is nothing in the article at the link about this motive, but my bet is that the prospective change in the US corporate tax system is behind it.
Hardly a great American, one might say of Murdock. But America was built on entrepreneurial spirit and a distaste for taxes. I would say, then, that he is a great American.
Monday, March 08, 2010
"[A] huge, wealth destroying, regulatory machine . . ."
There is one of those in Ottowa, according to David Warren. (Thanks, Macon.)
There is one of those in Sacramento, but not in Austin, according to Michael Barone. (Thanks, Glenn Reynolds.)
There is at least one of those in Miami-Dade County, but you would have to add the word "corruption" somewhere in the tag line.
Tallahassee is trying very hard to grow one.
The common denominator in all of these is the public sector union.
There is one of those in Sacramento, but not in Austin, according to Michael Barone. (Thanks, Glenn Reynolds.)
There is at least one of those in Miami-Dade County, but you would have to add the word "corruption" somewhere in the tag line.
Tallahassee is trying very hard to grow one.
The common denominator in all of these is the public sector union.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Blizzard Heading Mary's Way
This second storm will be nothing short of a monster. Even in light of the blizzards earlier this winter that targeted the southern mid-Atlantic, this may be the one that people remember the most this winter in parts of New England and the northern mid-Atlantic.
At its peak, the storm will deliver near hurricane-force wind gusts (74 mph) blinding snow falling at the rate of over an inch per hour. For some people in upstate New York and eastern and northern Pennsylvania, this may seem more like a "snow hurricane" rather than a blizzard.
Cities likely to be impacted by heavy snow for all or at least part of the storm include: New York City, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Scranton, Allentown, Reading, Williamsport and Burlington.
So much for the weekend plans. (Better stock up.)
UPDATE
Monday, February 22, 2010
Weekend in Rochester
Carol and I worked on President's Day last week, so we could take a three-day weekend to Rochester, beginning just this past Saturday, to see Mary. This was a rare interval in her grueling medical school program, the most recent academic unit's exam having been last Monday and the next unit's exam several weeks from now. So she could spare us a Sunday, so off we went Saturday morning, headed to Philadelphia on USAir to change planes to Rochester and get there mid-afternoon. Walter was coming from Austin too, a super bonus, and we planned to do some cross-country skiing at a resort about 30 miles south of Rochester and near the town of Bristol.
The plane flights up were troublesome. I got bumped in Philly because USAir had overbooked the flight, but Carol went on. There were no other flights to Rochester that day. However, a USAir flight to Buffalo was boarding about two gates down the concourse, and USAir put another bumped passenger, a younger lady, and me on it. She told me that she was calling her husband to drive from Rochester to pick her up, and they would be happy to take me with them. So I arrived only a little more than 2 hours after Carol's plane arrived. (The drive from Buffalo to Rochester was a pleasure. The husband was a researcher at UR, and the young lady was a PhD who was staying at home taking care of their 4 year old, who came over with his dad. This young couple had met in college and were active in IV both at college and grad school. They are active in a Christian Reformed Church in Rochester.)
Walter had much more difficulty than I had with his connections, and finally arrived not in Rochester but in also Buffalo. So, after Mary gave us a tour of the hospital and med school (I'll post more on that later), back we went to Buffalo and picked Walter up about 6:30PM. But as long as we were all finally together, it didn't much matter, although I wish Walter had been spared the difficult time he had getting from Austin to Rochester that day. It was a consolation to have a fine supper in Rochester at a cozy table at Mediterranean restaurant on Monroe Street called Aladdin's. The food was very reasonably priced and very, very good.
Finally at Mary's house together, we settled down, Carol and I on the air mattress and Walter curled up in a sleeping bag, and had a good night's sleep.
Where Saturday was overcast and gray, Sunday morning was bright, clear, full of sunshine, with a beautiful winter blue sky. The day just begged us to come out and play. So down to the Bristol Mountain Ski resort we drove. Carol and I had a few trepidations about putting on skis again, but this time we would not do downhill ("Alpine") skiing but instead "Nordic" or Cross-Country. Friends of ours here who are from up north warned us about how strenuous it was, but we decided we would try it anyway, and, of course, Mary and Walter were more than game.
We had a wonderful time, and it was well within our physical capabilities. The resort had a terrific teacher who held a one-hour class for Nordic beginners, and he led us through the basics. The cross-country trails had been "groomed," so that made it much easier for us too.
We skied until about mid-afternoon, and by that time Carol and I were pretty tired, although we simply rejoiced at the beauty of the day, the woods covered with snow, and the time with Mary and Walter. And we did pretty well with the skis, and would be ready to do it again.
We came back to Rochester simply famished. Mary called her great friend Liz and we all went out to a Thai restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious there too, and just what we needed to fill us back up.
This morning, however, came all to soon. We had a good oatmeal breakfast, but Mary was soon ready to go school. She put on her white coat for a picture with Carol, and then it was good-bye. I took a photo of her out the window of her upstairs apartment, as she was crossing the street in front of her house to go up to the entrance to the hospital. Walter took us right to the airport, but would spend a little more time with Mary today before beginning his air journey home. We made our connections and arrived in Miami on time, already missing our loved ones, the one in Rochester, the eight in Austin. But so happy to have seen Mary and Walter this weekend.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Not So Enthralled by Pawlenty
Myself, at least. Not after reading this. Come on, Republicans. Is this all you have?
Not Enthralled with Palin
Rabinowitz of the WSJ. George Will, too. It's not just the Left.
Glenn Reynolds also writes:
"Okay, she’s a lot more qualified [to be President] than Obama was. But that’s setting the bar way too low."
If we are dealing with a charismatic woman with mainstream economic views and traditional values from out West who didn't go to Harvard Law, then of course there must be a much higher standard.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Dick Francis: 1920-2010
I really enjoyed his books (as did my mother), mysteries built against the background of horse racing, reflecting his career as a jockey before he turned to writing. The WSJ yesterday described his genre as "horse-themed thrillers." Here is the article from the NYT, which doesn't (yet) require a subscription. One thing fascinating about the WSJ article is the account of his wife's involvement in his writing. What a happy and productive marriage that must have been.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
UPDATE: Evan Bayh as [NOT A] Wuss
On further reflection, I disagree with those who think he's not much. (Thanks, Ann Althouse.)
To be in Congress?! To be a US Senator?! Give that up when you are in your mid-fifties?! Only if your eyes are on the Presidency. If Palin can give up the Alaska governor's office to run, why can't Bayh step out of that train-wreck known as Congress?
Obama is toast. Let the games begin.
To be in Congress?! To be a US Senator?! Give that up when you are in your mid-fifties?! Only if your eyes are on the Presidency. If Palin can give up the Alaska governor's office to run, why can't Bayh step out of that train-wreck known as Congress?
Obama is toast. Let the games begin.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Dr. McDougall's Recent Letter to President Clinton
Dear 42nd President William Jefferson Clinton:
With all their good intentions, and the use of sophisticated, expensive technologies, your doctors are allowing your heart disease to progress as if it were a runaway train destined for a wreck. Your cardiologist, Dr. Allan Schwartz, at New York Presbyterian Hospital is telling you further blockage is the normal course of your disease, and your diet and lifestyle are not involved. Medical experts expressing their opinion in the news since your surgery are misleading the public into believing that the proper management of this disease is through constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. This is big business talking, and in addition to mismanagement of your personal care, one result will be an increase in the already more than one million angioplasties and 500 thousand bypass surgeries performed annually in the US.
Recall your first painful encounter with the heart surgery business on September 3, 2004 when you were hospitalized following an episode of chest pain. You had quadruple bypass surgery three days later. A couple of days ago, on Thursday, February 11, 2010, you needed the heart surgeons again. You had two bare metal stents placed in your heart following a few of days of mild chest discomfort. This history will continue to repeat itself until you seriously change your eating habits and get these meddling doctors out of your life. You are missing another “teaching moment” and bypassing another chance to change health and healthcare in America.
In a letter I sent to you the day following your hospitalization in 2004, I pleaded with you to refuse bypass surgery. I told you that bypass surgery does not save lives in most cases, and I warned you of the brain damage you would suffer from being on the heart-lung bypass machine. Likely you did not read that letter. Following your quadruple bypass you were a noticeably different man. Your sometimes-irrational behavior during Hillary Clinton’s campaign was in part due to your surgically-induced mental decline. I sent another letter in the spring of 2008 apologizing for the harm my colleagues caused you and their failure to offer you intensive medical therapy founded on a healthy diet. I believe you received that letter or read the Wall Street Journal article that followed about your brain damage. Since you became aware of your functional loss you have seemed to me to be in much better control when before the public.
I am taking the opportunity in this letter to try to help you again. By helping one of our country’s greatest statesmen, I may be able to help other heart patients (which happens to include most adults following the Western diet). This is my third attempt, but likely not my last, because, after all, your heart doctors (Dean Ornish, MD being an outstanding exception) believe your disease is unstoppable. Remember what they said: they are going to manage your future health by constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. These well-educated professionals are dead wrong on how to care for a patient such as you.
In order for you to stop having false hope you need to be told that heart surgery, including bypass surgery and angioplasty with or without stents, does not save lives in the vast majority of cases. You have not been fixed by either procedure. The reason for this is that the bypass surgeons and cardiologists are operating on the stable hard fibrous plaques that do not kill people. Why do they operate on nonlethal lesions? Because they can. These large fibrous stable plaques, which have been present for years, if not decades, are visible by technologies like angiograms and heart scans. Once visualized, they become targets for knives, grafts, sutures, and catheters.
The disease that really kills is largely invisible to your doctors. Tiny festering sores that rupture cause heart attacks, and the deaths that follow these heart attacks in nearly half the cases. In order to understand the underlying problem, think about pustules or pimples rupturing on a teenager’s face, but in this case the deadly activity is inside your arteries. In medical terminology, these tiny sores are called “volatile plaques.” When they pop, substances generally referred to as “products of injury” are released. The body’s response is to form a blood clot to cover up the wound (similar to the blood clot that forms when you cut your hand with a knife). If the blood clot (called a thrombus) is large enough, then the flow in the entire heart artery can be blocked off. The heart muscle that lies distal to this sudden blockage usually dies—and that is how a heart attack occurs.
Why do heart surgeons not operate on the killing part of this disease? Because they can’t. They cannot see these tiny festering sores with current technology. Even if they could see these “silent killers,” they have no surgical techniques to stop them from exploding. The only solution is to allow the body to heal your steadily-progressing disease by making serious dietary changes. (Medications, such as aspirin and statins, when judiciously used, can be of benefit as well.)
I realize you were frightened by the chest discomfort on both occasions (2004 and 2010). Fortunately, changing to a healthy low-fat diet (like the Pritikin, McDougall, Ornish, or Esselstyn Diets) reduces the intensity and/or stops the chest pains very quickly. Improvement in blood flow begins with the first good meal. In a matter of hours the blood naturally thins and a blood clot is less likely to form if a volatile plaque does rupture (aspirin helps too). Spontaneous healing is a powerful force — within the first week the risk of pustule rupture is greatly reduced. In a matter of months, reversal of artery disease can be seen by current technologies (angiograms and PET scans).
The truths I have given you are indisputable and most of your doctors are well aware of the solid research behind what I have told you. Your problem now is the same as everyone else’s: making the change. This is not easy, especially when you have almost no conservative medical support. If you do not change you can expect your future to be more like the past, but probably worse, because you are getting older. So for your sake, and all those who benefit from your work, I invite you to attend the next 10-day, live-in, McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California, March 19 to 28, 2010. You can call me at (800) 941-7111. In this short time together, I promise we will change your life dramatically for the better. When that happens I will stop writing you these cautionary letters, which so far have accurately predicted your future.
Sincerely,
John McDougall, MD
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
© 2010 John McDougall All Rights Reserved
(Used with Dr. McDougall's permission.)
For the MSM point of view, see this.
With all their good intentions, and the use of sophisticated, expensive technologies, your doctors are allowing your heart disease to progress as if it were a runaway train destined for a wreck. Your cardiologist, Dr. Allan Schwartz, at New York Presbyterian Hospital is telling you further blockage is the normal course of your disease, and your diet and lifestyle are not involved. Medical experts expressing their opinion in the news since your surgery are misleading the public into believing that the proper management of this disease is through constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. This is big business talking, and in addition to mismanagement of your personal care, one result will be an increase in the already more than one million angioplasties and 500 thousand bypass surgeries performed annually in the US.
Recall your first painful encounter with the heart surgery business on September 3, 2004 when you were hospitalized following an episode of chest pain. You had quadruple bypass surgery three days later. A couple of days ago, on Thursday, February 11, 2010, you needed the heart surgeons again. You had two bare metal stents placed in your heart following a few of days of mild chest discomfort. This history will continue to repeat itself until you seriously change your eating habits and get these meddling doctors out of your life. You are missing another “teaching moment” and bypassing another chance to change health and healthcare in America.
In a letter I sent to you the day following your hospitalization in 2004, I pleaded with you to refuse bypass surgery. I told you that bypass surgery does not save lives in most cases, and I warned you of the brain damage you would suffer from being on the heart-lung bypass machine. Likely you did not read that letter. Following your quadruple bypass you were a noticeably different man. Your sometimes-irrational behavior during Hillary Clinton’s campaign was in part due to your surgically-induced mental decline. I sent another letter in the spring of 2008 apologizing for the harm my colleagues caused you and their failure to offer you intensive medical therapy founded on a healthy diet. I believe you received that letter or read the Wall Street Journal article that followed about your brain damage. Since you became aware of your functional loss you have seemed to me to be in much better control when before the public.
I am taking the opportunity in this letter to try to help you again. By helping one of our country’s greatest statesmen, I may be able to help other heart patients (which happens to include most adults following the Western diet). This is my third attempt, but likely not my last, because, after all, your heart doctors (Dean Ornish, MD being an outstanding exception) believe your disease is unstoppable. Remember what they said: they are going to manage your future health by constant surveillance and repeated surgical interventions. These well-educated professionals are dead wrong on how to care for a patient such as you.
In order for you to stop having false hope you need to be told that heart surgery, including bypass surgery and angioplasty with or without stents, does not save lives in the vast majority of cases. You have not been fixed by either procedure. The reason for this is that the bypass surgeons and cardiologists are operating on the stable hard fibrous plaques that do not kill people. Why do they operate on nonlethal lesions? Because they can. These large fibrous stable plaques, which have been present for years, if not decades, are visible by technologies like angiograms and heart scans. Once visualized, they become targets for knives, grafts, sutures, and catheters.
The disease that really kills is largely invisible to your doctors. Tiny festering sores that rupture cause heart attacks, and the deaths that follow these heart attacks in nearly half the cases. In order to understand the underlying problem, think about pustules or pimples rupturing on a teenager’s face, but in this case the deadly activity is inside your arteries. In medical terminology, these tiny sores are called “volatile plaques.” When they pop, substances generally referred to as “products of injury” are released. The body’s response is to form a blood clot to cover up the wound (similar to the blood clot that forms when you cut your hand with a knife). If the blood clot (called a thrombus) is large enough, then the flow in the entire heart artery can be blocked off. The heart muscle that lies distal to this sudden blockage usually dies—and that is how a heart attack occurs.
Why do heart surgeons not operate on the killing part of this disease? Because they can’t. They cannot see these tiny festering sores with current technology. Even if they could see these “silent killers,” they have no surgical techniques to stop them from exploding. The only solution is to allow the body to heal your steadily-progressing disease by making serious dietary changes. (Medications, such as aspirin and statins, when judiciously used, can be of benefit as well.)
I realize you were frightened by the chest discomfort on both occasions (2004 and 2010). Fortunately, changing to a healthy low-fat diet (like the Pritikin, McDougall, Ornish, or Esselstyn Diets) reduces the intensity and/or stops the chest pains very quickly. Improvement in blood flow begins with the first good meal. In a matter of hours the blood naturally thins and a blood clot is less likely to form if a volatile plaque does rupture (aspirin helps too). Spontaneous healing is a powerful force — within the first week the risk of pustule rupture is greatly reduced. In a matter of months, reversal of artery disease can be seen by current technologies (angiograms and PET scans).
The truths I have given you are indisputable and most of your doctors are well aware of the solid research behind what I have told you. Your problem now is the same as everyone else’s: making the change. This is not easy, especially when you have almost no conservative medical support. If you do not change you can expect your future to be more like the past, but probably worse, because you are getting older. So for your sake, and all those who benefit from your work, I invite you to attend the next 10-day, live-in, McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California, March 19 to 28, 2010. You can call me at (800) 941-7111. In this short time together, I promise we will change your life dramatically for the better. When that happens I will stop writing you these cautionary letters, which so far have accurately predicted your future.
Sincerely,
John McDougall, MD
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
© 2010 John McDougall All Rights Reserved
(Used with Dr. McDougall's permission.)
For the MSM point of view, see this.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Slog Post
Slough Slogging, that is.
Contact the Dove Avenue Outfitters to make arrangements before skeeter season starts.
Contact the Dove Avenue Outfitters to make arrangements before skeeter season starts.
Valentine's Day in Afghanistan
A photo from Michael Yon, via Instapundit, to make you both weep and be thankful.
Prostate Cancer and Diet
Two of my friends, both men in their sixties, were recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. One of my former partners at Smathers & Thompson, a man I had known 40 years, a fine amateur athlete all of his life, died of the disease last year at age 77. I continue to represent a widow of another partner, a man who died of prostate cancer in the early 1990s when in his sixties. "In men aged forty to fifty-nine, the risk of developing prostate cancer is one in fifty. In men aged sixty to seventy-nine, it's one in seven. And over the course of his lifetime, an American man's risk of developing prostate cancer is one in six." (Walsh at p. 45, see full cite below.) The disease has my attention.
I happened to be meeting with a client last Monday who is a physician. Although he is not a urologist, so many of his friends have been diagnosed with prostate cancer that he has made a study of it. Because some of those friends were/are also doctors, he has been able to discuss the matter with them at a high level. The subject came up between the two of us because one of the two friends of mine recently diagnosed is a friend of his.
He recommended Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (Second Edition), which I am now reading. It is well written and very informative. (Patrick Walsh is a world renowned urologist and the physician at Johns Hopkins who developed the modern surgical approach to the treatment of prostate disease.)
As to the influence of diet, Dr. Walsh writes:
Animal fat is bad for you, especially the fat found in red meat and dairy products. Men who eat a lot of those foods are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer and die from it. Why? There is an enzyme in prostate cancer cells that craves the fatty acids in dairy products and red meat. Consequently, when a man with prostate cancer consumes a diet high in those foods, his cancer cells get nine times more energy than normal cells. Further, these cells produce hydrogen peroxide, which causes still more oxidative damage to DNA and more mutations, leading to further progression of the disease.
Dr. Campbell addresses the diet-prostate disease connection in his The China Study. He quotes on page 178 from a 2001 Harvard review of the research as follows:
. . . twelve of . . . fourteen case-control studies and seven of . . . nine cohort studies [have] observed a positive association for some measure of dairy products and prostate cancer; this is one of the most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature [my (Dr. Campbell's) emphasis]. In these studies, men with the highest dairy intakes had approximately double the risk of total prostate cancer, and up to a fourfold increase in risk of metastatic or fatal prostate cancer relative to low consumers.
I happened to be meeting with a client last Monday who is a physician. Although he is not a urologist, so many of his friends have been diagnosed with prostate cancer that he has made a study of it. Because some of those friends were/are also doctors, he has been able to discuss the matter with them at a high level. The subject came up between the two of us because one of the two friends of mine recently diagnosed is a friend of his.
He recommended Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (Second Edition), which I am now reading. It is well written and very informative. (Patrick Walsh is a world renowned urologist and the physician at Johns Hopkins who developed the modern surgical approach to the treatment of prostate disease.)
As to the influence of diet, Dr. Walsh writes:
Animal fat is bad for you, especially the fat found in red meat and dairy products. Men who eat a lot of those foods are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer and die from it. Why? There is an enzyme in prostate cancer cells that craves the fatty acids in dairy products and red meat. Consequently, when a man with prostate cancer consumes a diet high in those foods, his cancer cells get nine times more energy than normal cells. Further, these cells produce hydrogen peroxide, which causes still more oxidative damage to DNA and more mutations, leading to further progression of the disease.
Dr. Campbell addresses the diet-prostate disease connection in his The China Study. He quotes on page 178 from a 2001 Harvard review of the research as follows:
. . . twelve of . . . fourteen case-control studies and seven of . . . nine cohort studies [have] observed a positive association for some measure of dairy products and prostate cancer; this is one of the most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature [my (Dr. Campbell's) emphasis]. In these studies, men with the highest dairy intakes had approximately double the risk of total prostate cancer, and up to a fourfold increase in risk of metastatic or fatal prostate cancer relative to low consumers.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Miscellany
LOTR Prequel
Bananas as proof of God's existence.
Dairy and brain damage.
Soft-serve bananas. I skip the food processor step.
Bananas as proof of God's existence.
Dairy and brain damage.
Soft-serve bananas. I skip the food processor step.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Magic Mushrooms in Miami
Read this wonderful article in Thursday's Miami Herald about Benjamin Masopeh, a farmer from Ghana, who came to Homestead to show a farmer there how to grow oyster mushrooms. (There's just no place on earth like Miami-Dade County.)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Kiffin Update
There is a proposal to name a sewage treatment plant in Tennessee after him.
It seemed right to me at first. But after a very short moment of reflection, I think it's an entirely bad idea. Such plants are exceedingly necessary and useful. Good people design and run them. And such enterprises turn waste into something helpful. Obviously, it would be an inappropriate gesture.
It seemed right to me at first. But after a very short moment of reflection, I think it's an entirely bad idea. Such plants are exceedingly necessary and useful. Good people design and run them. And such enterprises turn waste into something helpful. Obviously, it would be an inappropriate gesture.
Mort Zuckerman on President Obama
Mortimor B. Zuckerman is the Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News and World Report and a regular panelist on the McLaughlin Group, which Carol and I have watched for years on public television. He usually sits to the right of McLaughlin, the viewer's left, and it is on that side thatpundits who are politically "left of center" sit. On the left of McLaughlin, the viewer's right, is where the pundits sit who are "right of center." McLaughlin, of course, sits in the center, and I believe he thinks of himself as politically in the center.
After listening to Zuckerman's comments over the years, I would say that he is left of center, but not very much. Of course, that's a subjective viewpoint, as all of this left-of-center, right-of-center, labeling is. That labeling is quickly less than helpful and even damaging to political discussion. In any event, Zuckerman very much liked Obama during the campaign and has said very hopeful things about him over the last 12 months.
But now he writes an article in U.S.News entitled "The Incredible Deflation of Barack Obama." It is well worth reading. He doesn't bash Obama. He expresses his deep disappointment and he describes reasonably and accurately the mistakes that the President has made and the political consequences of them. He also expresses the hope the the President will somehow get back on the right course.
Frankly, I don't see Obama being able to turn his administration around. I do not believe he has the experience, the political know-how, to do so. His character also seems to lack the sort of humility that it would take for him to start anew and act differently. Finally, I believe he has a sort of religious faith that government has the answers, all the answers, if only government were large and powerful enough and had bright people like him to run it. I hope I'm wrong about his ability to get on the right course. I fear, though, that he will simply "double-down" on his bet that he can shove his agenda through by doing whatever it takes.
But if he looses very bright, opened minded, articulate, centrist, and well-connected people like Mort Zuckerman, the President will surely, surely fail.
After listening to Zuckerman's comments over the years, I would say that he is left of center, but not very much. Of course, that's a subjective viewpoint, as all of this left-of-center, right-of-center, labeling is. That labeling is quickly less than helpful and even damaging to political discussion. In any event, Zuckerman very much liked Obama during the campaign and has said very hopeful things about him over the last 12 months.
But now he writes an article in U.S.News entitled "The Incredible Deflation of Barack Obama." It is well worth reading. He doesn't bash Obama. He expresses his deep disappointment and he describes reasonably and accurately the mistakes that the President has made and the political consequences of them. He also expresses the hope the the President will somehow get back on the right course.
Frankly, I don't see Obama being able to turn his administration around. I do not believe he has the experience, the political know-how, to do so. His character also seems to lack the sort of humility that it would take for him to start anew and act differently. Finally, I believe he has a sort of religious faith that government has the answers, all the answers, if only government were large and powerful enough and had bright people like him to run it. I hope I'm wrong about his ability to get on the right course. I fear, though, that he will simply "double-down" on his bet that he can shove his agenda through by doing whatever it takes.
But if he looses very bright, opened minded, articulate, centrist, and well-connected people like Mort Zuckerman, the President will surely, surely fail.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Returning to the SLR Mode
I got a good price on a factory refurbished Nikon D40 from Adoroma by way of Ken Rockwell's great camera website. Here's what Rockwell says about the D40.
My D40 is too much fun. I own all sorts of serious cameras like the Canon 5D, Nikon D200, D80 and D70, but my D40, with its weightless 18-55mm lens and SB-400 flash, is what I grab most of the time as of May 2007 when I just want to make good photos easily. It works great with my other lenses like my Nikon 18-200mm VR.
The camera is no longer being made by Nikon and its factory refurbished ones are disappearing too.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Happy Public Art at Jacksonville Airport
Last weekend we traveled through the new (to us) Jacksonville International Airport and, but for the ubiquitous TV monitors blaring CNN which are very seriously annoying, it is a most pleasant place. (Ubiquitous TV monitors blaring anything would be seriously annoying.) People with good taste worked very hard on the design of the interior of the airport and execution.
Of all places to be presented with some happy public art were the entries to the rest rooms. The first photo presents the entry foyer to the men's room. Note the border around the entrance, both the sides and the top, and then the design on the wall at the rear of the foyer. (I'm sure that there are words for these several parts of the foyer, but I don't know what they are. I don't even know whether "foyer" is the right word to describe the entrance.)
The second photo shows a close up of the vertical boarder of the entrance. As you can begin to see, the boarders are really glass cases with objects in them. The objects in the cases that make up the entry boarders are little globes. The side cases have multi-colored globes and the case that runs across the top of the entrance have bands of multi-colored and blue-hued globes.
The back wall of the foyer turns out to be a glass case too. In it are diagonal rows upon rows of little paper airplanes. What a delight!
The last photo is of the concourse, looking toward the end of it where there is a huge arching window with a giant figure that appears to be walking by it outside. It took me aback when I first saw it. It looked so realistic. Was it a sculpture erected just outside the window? On closer inspection, it proved to be a sort of decal or painting, I don't know which. But it was great fun too.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Volunteers Liberated
Lane Kiffin is gone. He was plainly not SEC material. Besides that, one jerk-coach in the SEC is plenty, and Kiffin was number two. So, yeah, back to the left-coast with you, and the (Trojan) horse you rode in on.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The Blind Man on Second Avenue
I was walking up SE 2nd Avenue from SE 1st Street toward Flagler about noon today. On the sidewalk coming toward me was a youngish man with a white cane, a blind man, and he was talking on a cell phone as he walked. I thought that strange. I thought hearing was very important for blind people, and here he was walking along the city sidewalk next to a busy street, on his cell phone.
Is it a sort of bigotry that makes me think that this is more bizarre than people driving their cars in traffic while on the cell phone? It's risky behavior for both. The driver thinks he is seeing everything because his eyes are open, even as his attention is focused on what the phone. The blind man thinks he is hearing everything, while he listens to his cell, and feeling whatever he feels with his cane, even though his attention is on his phone.
On second thought, it's not quite the same thing. The driver relies on his sight, and he is doing nothing to impair his sight with his cell phone use (if he is not dialing or texting, of course). The problem is that his attention is distracted. But as sight is to the sighted, isn't hearing to the blind? By listening on the phone, isn't the blind man especially impaired? I don't think I was being bigoted when the blind man's behavior seemed particularly bizarre to me today.
Is it a sort of bigotry that makes me think that this is more bizarre than people driving their cars in traffic while on the cell phone? It's risky behavior for both. The driver thinks he is seeing everything because his eyes are open, even as his attention is focused on what the phone. The blind man thinks he is hearing everything, while he listens to his cell, and feeling whatever he feels with his cane, even though his attention is on his phone.
On second thought, it's not quite the same thing. The driver relies on his sight, and he is doing nothing to impair his sight with his cell phone use (if he is not dialing or texting, of course). The problem is that his attention is distracted. But as sight is to the sighted, isn't hearing to the blind? By listening on the phone, isn't the blind man especially impaired? I don't think I was being bigoted when the blind man's behavior seemed particularly bizarre to me today.
The Solution for Excess Being More Excess
Recently, politicians have been saying that more lending is necessary for the economy to recover quickly. While with bank CEOs in December, President Obama urged them to "take a third and fourth look" at their lending practices and announced that the administration's focus over the next several months will be "geared towards catalyzing and spurring additional lending, particularly to small businesses."
These political inducements to increase lending may do more harm that good. In a market economy, banks do not need any convincing to lend to sound businesses with profitable projects. The profit motive is usually sufficient. What politicians typically want is for banks to lend for projects that are not necessarily sound or profitable. Urging the banks to lend more than they would choose pushes them towards the risky practices of the past. More lending is unlikely to be a solution to the crisis brought about by excessive debt levels. Excesses are not overcome by still more excesses.
-Polina Vlasenko, Research Fellow, AIER, in "More Lending Isn't the Answer," Research Reports, January 11, 2010.
But if the banks won't do the lending, the federal government will.
These political inducements to increase lending may do more harm that good. In a market economy, banks do not need any convincing to lend to sound businesses with profitable projects. The profit motive is usually sufficient. What politicians typically want is for banks to lend for projects that are not necessarily sound or profitable. Urging the banks to lend more than they would choose pushes them towards the risky practices of the past. More lending is unlikely to be a solution to the crisis brought about by excessive debt levels. Excesses are not overcome by still more excesses.
-Polina Vlasenko, Research Fellow, AIER, in "More Lending Isn't the Answer," Research Reports, January 11, 2010.
But if the banks won't do the lending, the federal government will.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Don at Our Wedding
My Uncle Don was a groomsman at my wedding in 1970. In the first photo, he is the groomsman at the far right. (To his right is my cousin Kenneth. Then my father, who was best man, and then me. The minister was my friend and roommate my senior year at Duke, Doug Tanner, who went on to Duke Divinity School after we graduated. The other groomsmen are, continuing to the left, Ashley James, Al Kirshen, a friend of mine from law school, and Tommy Watts, who grew up with me in Miami Springs. The bridesmaids from right to left are Margaret Drury, a friend of Carol's from Greensboro, Janice Horner, Carol's roommate at Duke, Debbie Williams, Carol's suite mate at Duke, Carol's sister, Mary Ann James, who was matron of honor, Gail Millians, who lived across the street from Carol in Greensboro, and my sister, Julia. The ring bearer is Jeff James, Mary Ann's son.)
The next photo shows Don second from the right, between Al and Ken.
The final photo doesn't have Don in it, but it's one of my two favorites from the wedding, so I thought I would post it.
The first wedding in my memory was that of Don and Ann in 1952 at the First Baptist Church of East Point, Georgia, the middle class suburb of Atlanta where my grandfather had his funeral home and, right next door to the funeral home, his own home. It was a grand wedding, and I remember the excitement and joy even today. I was six years old then. There is a photo among the pictures in Ann and Don's wedding album which has me in it, looking up at Ann in her beautiful wedding dress. I had about the same expression on my face as the one in the third photo. Both Ann and Carol were stunning brides, and both Don and I very blessed young men.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Uncle Don Passed Away
Friday morning we got word that Uncle Don died. He had been in the hospital in Macon for several weeks, after having fallen and sustaining serious head injuries. He died on Thursday. The funeral was to be in Eastman on Saturday (yesterday) and a memorial service is to be held to day at Wofford College in Spartanburg. He was Professor Emeritus at Wofford, where he had taught biology for 40 years before retiring, having started his career there at age 22, while working on his PhD at Emory. (The link has a good photo of Don.)
We knew that he was desperately ill, and as soon as we got word, Carol made arrangements for us to fly to Jacksonville Friday evening, stay in a hotel near the airport, and then get a car for us to drive to Eastman the next morning. We arrived at Ann and Don's church Saturday morning a little after 11AM, in time for the visitation that had just begun and the service at Noon. After the service, we drove in the caravan to the cemetery outside of town, and then came back to the church for lunch, where folks there had laid out a marvelous meal.
Ann and Don's children and grandchildren were there, of course. Their children are Donna, Mark, and Philip. Donna has four children, all daughters. Mark has three children, a son and two daughters. Philip has two children, a son and a daughter. But there were a lot of other people there, a lot of kinfolk, some of whom we had not seen in many years, some since my mother's burial in Atlanta three years ago this April, and still others since Ann and Don's 50th wedding anniversary celebration at that same church in 2002 or 2003. My cousin Butch Hemperley and his wife were there from Atlanta. My Uncle Asa and his wife from Hutchinson Island, Florida, were there, and many others. Among the most interesting among them all were the younger people, mainly the grandchildren, and I regret that I did not have the opportunity to visit with each one of them. Our short time there was quite structured - it was only about 5 hours - for we started back to Jacksonville about 4PM, arriving at our hotel after 8PM.
I want to post more about Uncle Don and Aunt Ann later. They meant so much to me, as a model of a loving couple, fine parents, as community and professional leaders, very, very hard workers and people who helped and supported me directly, especially when I was at Duke and they showed such hospitality to a lonely boy. I was there at the beginning of their marriage, at their wedding in East Point in 1952, and now I am there at the end of their marriage in Eastman. I find myself profoundly saddened, but very thankful for them both.
We knew that he was desperately ill, and as soon as we got word, Carol made arrangements for us to fly to Jacksonville Friday evening, stay in a hotel near the airport, and then get a car for us to drive to Eastman the next morning. We arrived at Ann and Don's church Saturday morning a little after 11AM, in time for the visitation that had just begun and the service at Noon. After the service, we drove in the caravan to the cemetery outside of town, and then came back to the church for lunch, where folks there had laid out a marvelous meal.
Ann and Don's children and grandchildren were there, of course. Their children are Donna, Mark, and Philip. Donna has four children, all daughters. Mark has three children, a son and two daughters. Philip has two children, a son and a daughter. But there were a lot of other people there, a lot of kinfolk, some of whom we had not seen in many years, some since my mother's burial in Atlanta three years ago this April, and still others since Ann and Don's 50th wedding anniversary celebration at that same church in 2002 or 2003. My cousin Butch Hemperley and his wife were there from Atlanta. My Uncle Asa and his wife from Hutchinson Island, Florida, were there, and many others. Among the most interesting among them all were the younger people, mainly the grandchildren, and I regret that I did not have the opportunity to visit with each one of them. Our short time there was quite structured - it was only about 5 hours - for we started back to Jacksonville about 4PM, arriving at our hotel after 8PM.
I want to post more about Uncle Don and Aunt Ann later. They meant so much to me, as a model of a loving couple, fine parents, as community and professional leaders, very, very hard workers and people who helped and supported me directly, especially when I was at Duke and they showed such hospitality to a lonely boy. I was there at the beginning of their marriage, at their wedding in East Point in 1952, and now I am there at the end of their marriage in Eastman. I find myself profoundly saddened, but very thankful for them both.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Government Workers
Each work day morning I usually commute to downtown on MetroRail. Along the way, there is a stop at the Tri-Rail station, where commuters from Broward County board our train. Tri-Rail is a heavily subsidized, public commuter train company that rents track time for its cars from CSX. Tri-Rail's route runs parallel to I-95, beginning in north Palm Beach County and running south to its termination at a station near MIA airport. Its train stops at the MetroRail transfer point where its commuters join my ride.
A very substantial number of the people who get on board at the Tri-Rail station are government workers and the government they mostly work for is our county government, known as Metro-Dade. These people live in Broward County, home of late 20th century "white-flight," as to which sort of people I always thought "Good riddance." But here they are back, populating our local bureaucracy, living off our taxes, getting guaranteed pensions, health care, working their tough 9 to 5 jobs, and enjoying all the legal holidays and generous vacation benefits. Plus they are as noisy as they can be when they get on board. (Don't they have books to read? Or a newspaper?)
These government workers exit at two stations downtown and they walk all of about 100 feet to government buildings built immediately adjacent to the MetroRail stations. Do you think that county government had a hand in designing MetroRail? None of those buildings, built as they are on prime downtown property (or what could have been prime downtown property), pay any taxes, of course. They are built to absorb taxes, which they do well.
MetroRail, of course, is also a heavily subsidized, public transportation entity, except it runs on its own tracks, the construction of which was mostly financed with federal taxes back in the 20th Century. (President Reagan ridiculed the expenditures on MetroRail, famously saying that the government could have bought every one in Miami-Dade a Cadillac and saved money, instead of subsidizing the construction of MetroRail.)
Several years ago the people of Miami-Dade County in a referendum passed a one-half cent additional sales tax. We were promised that the funds would help with needed capital improvements and address deferred maintenance for MetroRail. The Miami Herald could not stop writing about what a wonderful thing such a tax would be. All the politicians supported it. It passed. But the funds were not used for capital improvements for MetroRail. Instead, they were used to raise salaries of the government workers who are employed by MetroRail. Even the Herald had to admit that Metro-Dade broke its promises and we were had.
All of this rant is preamble to the chart I am posting. It's a great chart, because it shows how bad the situation has become. For another unhappy chart, go to Instapundit. (I do recognize that the chart I posted does not purport to show all private-sector workers vs. government workers. It shows all "goods-producing" workers. There are, of course, workers in the private service sector. Lawyers, for example. [Pause for derisive laughter.] If service workers were added to the chart, then we would not see the lines cross so soon.)
Of course, we need some government workers, and many of them are conscientious and competent people. (Some of my best friends are . . . etc.) But they will be hurt along with the rest of us when our society collapses because of radical government expansion.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Joe and Hannah have a New Baby!
Annalise Andrea, born Christmas Day. A miraculous set of circumstances brought her early and healthy to Joe and Hannah.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
"I See You"
This is the greeting of the Na'vi, the people of Pandora in the movie Avatar. Carol, Mary, and I saw the 3D version last night, and it is a spectacular event.
"I see you." Oh, to be seen! Oh, to be seen, and not hide ourselves from each other, from God, and from our own self-consciousness.
But that is the question, isn't it? Who do we think we are? How do others perceive us? The Na'vi greeting suggests that these people "get it." They see each other and themselves as they are, and accept each other in their special sort of nakedness. In addition, they see the "natural" world as it mainly is, in its connectedness, in their connection to it (or among it, as part of its "network"), and in the "deity" that is at its center, a God who not only generates the life force (a familiar sci-fi conceit) but who also generates personal works of redemption, works that give people from our world new bodies, that makes them new creatures.
The central metaphor for our not being sure who we are is the ability of the protagonists to move from one body (the human) to a new body, their "avatar," a body that is strangely beautiful and close to perfect. At first, I thought John Cameron was simply reciting a Hollywood pantheism, but then I began to see his film as an attempt to describe a sort of universal theology, something that is close to the truth, a story that would describe what amounts to God's common grace, his involvement with the here and now, his transformative power. There is even a suggestion that people, human or Na'vi, may somehow participate in Gods' great work of calling us back to Eden. Pandora is where we come very close to "the Deity." where he sees us, and where we see each other. Is it over the top to suggest John Cameron as God's post-modern prophet? Probably. But see the movie.
"I see you." Oh, to be seen! Oh, to be seen, and not hide ourselves from each other, from God, and from our own self-consciousness.
But that is the question, isn't it? Who do we think we are? How do others perceive us? The Na'vi greeting suggests that these people "get it." They see each other and themselves as they are, and accept each other in their special sort of nakedness. In addition, they see the "natural" world as it mainly is, in its connectedness, in their connection to it (or among it, as part of its "network"), and in the "deity" that is at its center, a God who not only generates the life force (a familiar sci-fi conceit) but who also generates personal works of redemption, works that give people from our world new bodies, that makes them new creatures.
The central metaphor for our not being sure who we are is the ability of the protagonists to move from one body (the human) to a new body, their "avatar," a body that is strangely beautiful and close to perfect. At first, I thought John Cameron was simply reciting a Hollywood pantheism, but then I began to see his film as an attempt to describe a sort of universal theology, something that is close to the truth, a story that would describe what amounts to God's common grace, his involvement with the here and now, his transformative power. There is even a suggestion that people, human or Na'vi, may somehow participate in Gods' great work of calling us back to Eden. Pandora is where we come very close to "the Deity." where he sees us, and where we see each other. Is it over the top to suggest John Cameron as God's post-modern prophet? Probably. But see the movie.
Making it Through Another New Year's Eve, Alive and Unwounded
But not everyone in Miami was so fortunate. Alas, the stupid, celebratory gunfire is nothing new, as I reported last year and the year before.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Ex-Guantanamo Inmates Aided the Underwear Bomber
A front page article in this morning's Miami Herald states as follows:
Cascading reports [hold] that . . . the plot was hatched by two former Guantanamo detainees . . .
It was my impression that, when in a war, one lets war prisoners go when the war is over.
Oh, but this isn't a war. Excuse me.
Cascading reports [hold] that . . . the plot was hatched by two former Guantanamo detainees . . .
It was my impression that, when in a war, one lets war prisoners go when the war is over.
Oh, but this isn't a war. Excuse me.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Legos: "Hard Fun"
[W]ith only two million households responsible for 50% of U.S. sales, Lego isn't everyone's idea of fun.
The reality is that Lego's appeal is generally with a niche group of brainiacs, a group that includes many adults. Another major Lego challenge is the girls market, which the company has failed to crack.
[Lego CEO Jergen Vig Knudstorp] readily acknowledges that Legos eschew instant gratification, unlike many other toys. The deep form of engagement Lego requires - almost like reading a book, Mr. Knudstorp says - teaches children to be systematic, creative problem solvers.
"Many kids can easily get frustrated with the Lego experience," he says. "We call it 'Fun, but hard fun.' "
-From a WSJ article in the Thursday, December 24, 2009, print edition, on the back page of the Marketplace section.
Guess who's grandson this Christmas got a generous addition to his already respectable and well used Legos cache?
The reality is that Lego's appeal is generally with a niche group of brainiacs, a group that includes many adults. Another major Lego challenge is the girls market, which the company has failed to crack.
[Lego CEO Jergen Vig Knudstorp] readily acknowledges that Legos eschew instant gratification, unlike many other toys. The deep form of engagement Lego requires - almost like reading a book, Mr. Knudstorp says - teaches children to be systematic, creative problem solvers.
"Many kids can easily get frustrated with the Lego experience," he says. "We call it 'Fun, but hard fun.' "
-From a WSJ article in the Thursday, December 24, 2009, print edition, on the back page of the Marketplace section.
Guess who's grandson this Christmas got a generous addition to his already respectable and well used Legos cache?
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Pre-Christmas Fun!
When decorating cookies goes awry...
And the next day, we decorated gingerbread houses!!! Very Fun!
And the next day, we decorated gingerbread houses!!! Very Fun!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Bien Hecho, Hijos!
Texas Gains Most People in 2008-09, U.S. Census Says
“The state remains a magnet, drawing people from other parts of country who are out of work and believe their job prospects are a lot better than the places they came from,” said Bernard Weinstein, former director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas in Denton.
“Let’s be clear: Texas is having a recession like the rest of country, but it’s not as bad,” said Weinstein, now an economist at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Texas is going to pop up on a lot of radar screens as a place to relocate or expand for businesses.”
-from the linked-to article.
“The state remains a magnet, drawing people from other parts of country who are out of work and believe their job prospects are a lot better than the places they came from,” said Bernard Weinstein, former director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas in Denton.
“Let’s be clear: Texas is having a recession like the rest of country, but it’s not as bad,” said Weinstein, now an economist at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Texas is going to pop up on a lot of radar screens as a place to relocate or expand for businesses.”
-from the linked-to article.
Arizona Honor Killing and its Home-Grown American (shall we say) Sister
These sorts of things are not reported much in the MSM. Is it me, or is it true that when they are reported it's the daughters who are killed? (Cf. here.) Not that the American un-culture can point any fingers, what with the government getting ready to tax all of us to fund abortions, regardless of gender. Are honor killings less honorable than economic killings (abortion to serve convenience) or quasi-genocidal killings (abortions for poor people, mainly those poor people of color) or, look, here it is again, sex-selection killings? I think it's all simply evil. But it puts the un-culture right up there (or down there) with Muslim fathers who kill their daughters. Nice.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Mary Connects the Dots
Here. Amazing.
UPDATE: Are we seeing "fractals" here?
In ''The Artful Universe,'' (Oxford, 1995), the astronomer John D. Barrow argues that ''the arts and the sciences flow from a single source; they are informed by the same reality; and their insights are linked in ways that make them look less and less like alternatives.'' The geneticist Enrico Coen, who has just written ''The Art of Genes'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), uses painting as a metaphor to describe how organisms generate themselves. Beautiful natural patterns -- spirals, butterfly wings, rippling waves -- and their mathematical origins are explored in Philip Ball's ''The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature'' (Oxford, 1998). This writer has chimed in with ''Emblems of Mind'' (Avon, 1996), examining how music and mathematics create patterns that develop out of similar styles of metaphorical thinking.
-From the NYTimes article to which I link above.
UPDATE: Are we seeing "fractals" here?
In ''The Artful Universe,'' (Oxford, 1995), the astronomer John D. Barrow argues that ''the arts and the sciences flow from a single source; they are informed by the same reality; and their insights are linked in ways that make them look less and less like alternatives.'' The geneticist Enrico Coen, who has just written ''The Art of Genes'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), uses painting as a metaphor to describe how organisms generate themselves. Beautiful natural patterns -- spirals, butterfly wings, rippling waves -- and their mathematical origins are explored in Philip Ball's ''The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature'' (Oxford, 1998). This writer has chimed in with ''Emblems of Mind'' (Avon, 1996), examining how music and mathematics create patterns that develop out of similar styles of metaphorical thinking.
-From the NYTimes article to which I link above.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
This Greeted Us as We Drove In from our Trip
I set this plant in its plastic pot in the branches of the Black Olive tree in our front yard about 9 or 10 months ago, taping the pot in place with some clear masking tape. The florist who helps keep our office green drops by these plants now and then, after they have flowered, faded, and been replaced in reception rooms up and down the building by cute young orchids in full bloom. I take these unhappy, deflowered but living things home and give them a tree to live in. Their roots creep out of the pot and fasten on the bark, they gradually leave their pots behind, and then they bloom again. So there was one waiting for us as we drove in.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
"You Only Regret Your Economies"
This wonderful truth I heard for this first time just this way at a speech given a few weeks ago by Adrienne Arsht at the National Philanthropy Day luncheon here in Miami. Ms. Arsht is a hugely generous philanthropist and patron of the arts.
She said that her father had said this to her. The idea stayed with me after the speech, but not the exact quote. So I later contacted her office and Ms. Arsht's assistant gave it to me exactly.
In searching around the internet for this quote, I came across an essay on Reynolds Price by Peggy Meyer, Librarian Assistant at Lake Tahod Community Library. Here is what Ms. Meyer said about her reading of Price's collection of essays entitled Feasting the Heart:
My favorite [Reynolds Price] essay . . . is “A Motto,” and it sums up the feeling of the entire book. He recounts the story of an Irish friend of his. This friend had just found out his mother was dying and made the journey back home. While visiting, one night he checked in on her, saw she was resting quietly, and turned to leave without disturbing her. As he was about to exit, he heard her say, “Remember: I only regret my economies.”
Reynolds Price took this as a personal motto and says he has “never regretted a splurge in my life, only my stingy-hearted choices at the sun-baked crossroads of money and passion. In love and friendship, food and travel, art and commerce, thanks and praise…I only regret my economies still.”
She said that her father had said this to her. The idea stayed with me after the speech, but not the exact quote. So I later contacted her office and Ms. Arsht's assistant gave it to me exactly.
In searching around the internet for this quote, I came across an essay on Reynolds Price by Peggy Meyer, Librarian Assistant at Lake Tahod Community Library. Here is what Ms. Meyer said about her reading of Price's collection of essays entitled Feasting the Heart:
My favorite [Reynolds Price] essay . . . is “A Motto,” and it sums up the feeling of the entire book. He recounts the story of an Irish friend of his. This friend had just found out his mother was dying and made the journey back home. While visiting, one night he checked in on her, saw she was resting quietly, and turned to leave without disturbing her. As he was about to exit, he heard her say, “Remember: I only regret my economies.”
Reynolds Price took this as a personal motto and says he has “never regretted a splurge in my life, only my stingy-hearted choices at the sun-baked crossroads of money and passion. In love and friendship, food and travel, art and commerce, thanks and praise…I only regret my economies still.”
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Real Christmas Trees Greener? Healthier?
"Greener" says, Clint Springer, a biologist at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Well, maybe "greener" but not necessarily healthier. "Real" trees kept for several weeks in a family's home can cause allergies, and that's a great reason to stay away from real trees for lots of people. We need some PhD's in the neglected field of "unintended consequences," people who were liberal arts majors in schools where the liberal arts are taken seriously, to help their narrowly focused engineering and applied science friends look at the bigger picture. (I would add politicians to that list too, but I despair of them.)
How Does Bone Loss relate to Breast Cancer?
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bone-building drugs such as Merck & Co.’s Fosamax, Novartis AG’s Zometa and Roche Holding AG’s Boniva may cut older women’s risk of breast cancer, according to two studies presented today at a medical meeting in San Antonio. See the entire Bloomberg article here. The AP article on the subject appeared in yesterday's Miami Herald here.
The link between healthy bones and cancer is suggested in this statement by Susan E. Brown, PhD, an anthropologist who first became interested in bone health, according to her bio, when her grandmother died at age 102 from complications of a hip fracture. Here is what Dr. Brown says, in part, on her website Better Bones:
An underlying metabolic acidity is a common denominator among — and a likely contributing factor to — all degenerative and autoimmune diseases. An acid condition has several adverse effects on cell metabolism, including impaired energy production, fluid accumulation and edema, and a likely increase in free radical production. Interesting enough, kidney specialists working with acid-base balance now recognize that most Americans, as they age, live in chronic, low–grade metabolic acidosis. This condition contributes to a series of health problems, including loss of bone mineral, loss of muscle mass, a reduction in growth hormone, and the development of kidney stones.
I have been reading some about the importance of the alkaline-acid balance in one's body and have discussed the matter with Mary. According to what I read, the body needs to maintain a roughly neutral pH or slightly alkaline status. Where the pH moves to the acidic side, then the body must buffer that condition to bring the body back to a healthy pH. The body does so in several ways, but two of them involve muscle loss and bone loss, as the body somehow extracts from those (and other) organs the compounds that will buffer the acidity. If one's body is chronically out of balance on the acid side, then the stress on one's system to fight back to normalcy could break down its ability to fight disease generally, not to mention permanently weaken bones and muscles.
According to what I have been able to understand about the "bone-building drugs" mentioned in these articles, they retard or protect the bones from the process of breakdown. Does that breakdown have its source in the body's pH being acidic in the first place, and is the cancer-prevention mechanism involved with these drugs mainly one of restoring the alkaline-acid balance?
What one eats has a huge impact on the acid-alkaline balance, according to Dr. Brown. Are we surprised that fruits and vegetables produce an alkaline response, where meat and dairy produce an acidic response? Could what one eats affect his or her risks of osteoporosis and cancer? In her book The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Effect on pH Levels, Dr. Brown writes that those on the typical America diet are in a chronic states of acidosis, the condition of being on the wrong side of the alkaline/acid balance.
Dr. Brown, by the way, seriously (and, to me, convincingly) questions the use of such drugs as Fasomax to treat osteoporosis.
The link between healthy bones and cancer is suggested in this statement by Susan E. Brown, PhD, an anthropologist who first became interested in bone health, according to her bio, when her grandmother died at age 102 from complications of a hip fracture. Here is what Dr. Brown says, in part, on her website Better Bones:
An underlying metabolic acidity is a common denominator among — and a likely contributing factor to — all degenerative and autoimmune diseases. An acid condition has several adverse effects on cell metabolism, including impaired energy production, fluid accumulation and edema, and a likely increase in free radical production. Interesting enough, kidney specialists working with acid-base balance now recognize that most Americans, as they age, live in chronic, low–grade metabolic acidosis. This condition contributes to a series of health problems, including loss of bone mineral, loss of muscle mass, a reduction in growth hormone, and the development of kidney stones.
I have been reading some about the importance of the alkaline-acid balance in one's body and have discussed the matter with Mary. According to what I read, the body needs to maintain a roughly neutral pH or slightly alkaline status. Where the pH moves to the acidic side, then the body must buffer that condition to bring the body back to a healthy pH. The body does so in several ways, but two of them involve muscle loss and bone loss, as the body somehow extracts from those (and other) organs the compounds that will buffer the acidity. If one's body is chronically out of balance on the acid side, then the stress on one's system to fight back to normalcy could break down its ability to fight disease generally, not to mention permanently weaken bones and muscles.
According to what I have been able to understand about the "bone-building drugs" mentioned in these articles, they retard or protect the bones from the process of breakdown. Does that breakdown have its source in the body's pH being acidic in the first place, and is the cancer-prevention mechanism involved with these drugs mainly one of restoring the alkaline-acid balance?
What one eats has a huge impact on the acid-alkaline balance, according to Dr. Brown. Are we surprised that fruits and vegetables produce an alkaline response, where meat and dairy produce an acidic response? Could what one eats affect his or her risks of osteoporosis and cancer? In her book The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Effect on pH Levels, Dr. Brown writes that those on the typical America diet are in a chronic states of acidosis, the condition of being on the wrong side of the alkaline/acid balance.
Dr. Brown, by the way, seriously (and, to me, convincingly) questions the use of such drugs as Fasomax to treat osteoporosis.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Blue Dogs Push Back
Yes, Virginia, there are conservative and moderate Democrats. How can one be a Christian and a Democrat? I've heard that one. How can one be a Christian and a lawyer? Heard that one. How can one be a Christian and a PCUSA Presbyterian? Heard that one, too.
Nevertheless.
Nevertheless.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
On Being Well Shod in Rochester
Mary reports that she bought a pair of these yesterday. Just to walk across the street from her house to the hospital.
Food and Medicine
2500 years ago, Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine", said to his students, "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food". Moses Maimonides, the great 12th century physician, repeated the Hippocratic statement when he said, "No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means".
From Alternative-Doctor.com
A friend of mine, years younger than I, who recently had heart surgery because of blocked blood vessals, will rely on drugs to prevent the re-accumulation of plaque rather than change her diet.
A consequence of the inevitable decline in the quality and extent of healthcare in this country, whether the decline arises from nationalization or the failure to reform the situation we have now, will be that people will re-examine the way they eat and live, they will change their behaviors, and learn to avoid disease that was always preventable. The people who do not will simply die earlier than they would have otherwise.
The cartoon above strikes very close to home. I had always considered my dear father, who died of heart disease, a "big man" - in the sense of being "big boned." I never thought of myself that way; my mother told me that her maternal grandfather (family name Jordan) was a small man, and I thought that my build may have reflected his build. But as my dad lost weight in the years before his death, his physique began to look more and more like mine, until it was mine. He was just (and I hate this word to describe such a wonderful man) "fat." He was not big boned at all. He simply "carried it well," kept his Florsheim shoes shined and wore Hickey-Freeman business suits. He always looked good to me. But he died of his good looks.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
I Would Agree that the Climate Change Evidence "is Worsening"
WASHINGTON -- Starting Monday, negotiators in Copenhagen will try to nail down all of the main elements of a treaty to curb global warming, but a final agreement won't be possible until the United States figures out what it is willing to do to reduce emissions of heat-trapping pollution.
President Barack Obama plans to visit the talks on their final day to promise that the United States will cut its share of emissions and to press for a strong agreement. The world, however, will be watching to see whether he also signals a willingness to pressure Congress to enact the law that's needed to make that happen.
Despite charges by some critics that data on global temperatures have been altered, the evidence of climate change is conclusive and worsening.
-First three paragraphs of lead article on the front page of the Miami Herald this morning. I don't agree that "the evidence of climate change is conclusive," but I certainly believe that "the evidence of climate change is . . . worsening."
President Barack Obama plans to visit the talks on their final day to promise that the United States will cut its share of emissions and to press for a strong agreement. The world, however, will be watching to see whether he also signals a willingness to pressure Congress to enact the law that's needed to make that happen.
Despite charges by some critics that data on global temperatures have been altered, the evidence of climate change is conclusive and worsening.
-First three paragraphs of lead article on the front page of the Miami Herald this morning. I don't agree that "the evidence of climate change is conclusive," but I certainly believe that "the evidence of climate change is . . . worsening."
Saturday, December 05, 2009
"The Road to Stalingrad"
The object of the present work [The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War with Germany: Volume One, by John Erikson] can be set down briefly enough: it is designed to investigate the kind of war the Soviet Union waged, the nature of command decisions and the machinery of decision-making, the course of military operations, Soviet performance in the field and the economic effort behind the lines, the emergence of Soviet 'war aims' - beyond mere survival - and, finally, the Soviet style of war. In sum, it is an attempt to probe how the Soviet system functioned under conditions of maximum stress: from this point of view it is less military history per se and might more properly be regarded as a form of social history.
-from the Preface
A reading of the preface indicates that this must be a most well-written and powerful work, as it is reputed to be.
-from the Preface
A reading of the preface indicates that this must be a most well-written and powerful work, as it is reputed to be.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
More on Tebow and McCoy
I exchanged emails with my Gator friend Sam about the Texas/Texas A&M game and the Florida/FSU game, that is, about Tebow and McCoy. Here's what he wrote:
I watched the Texas game myself. Colt McCoy has more talent than Tim Tebow, as did the Oklahoma quarterback in last year's BCS national championship game. Tebow's major asset however is not his football talent. It's his leadership coupled with his will. One feeds the other. He is able to bring out the best in his players, both on offense and defense, just by being with them on the field. He is able to bring out the best in people wherever he goes, whatever he is doing, just by being there. Someone on ESPN the other day said it best -- that a player who does not have the greatest skill in college football has single-handedly changed the game. Last Sat, before the UF-FSU game, UF had its annual senior day. All schools do it -- an opportunity for the seniors to be introduced one by one for the last time. He came out on the field crying in front of 91,000 screaming fans. Yet not one person thought that he was a sissy or less of a man. And even with all that emotion, he proceeded to play a great game, accounting for 5 touchdowns before the coaches took him out of the game as a show of good sportsmanship.
I'm thankful that he played here and that I had the opportunity to watch him play for 4 years. I expect him to be a great leader of men wherever he goes. And people will be better for his just being around them.
I watched the Texas game myself. Colt McCoy has more talent than Tim Tebow, as did the Oklahoma quarterback in last year's BCS national championship game. Tebow's major asset however is not his football talent. It's his leadership coupled with his will. One feeds the other. He is able to bring out the best in his players, both on offense and defense, just by being with them on the field. He is able to bring out the best in people wherever he goes, whatever he is doing, just by being there. Someone on ESPN the other day said it best -- that a player who does not have the greatest skill in college football has single-handedly changed the game. Last Sat, before the UF-FSU game, UF had its annual senior day. All schools do it -- an opportunity for the seniors to be introduced one by one for the last time. He came out on the field crying in front of 91,000 screaming fans. Yet not one person thought that he was a sissy or less of a man. And even with all that emotion, he proceeded to play a great game, accounting for 5 touchdowns before the coaches took him out of the game as a show of good sportsmanship.
I'm thankful that he played here and that I had the opportunity to watch him play for 4 years. I expect him to be a great leader of men wherever he goes. And people will be better for his just being around them.
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