A High Calling

[God] has "told [us] what is good" (Micah 6:8), in the Bible, in the person of his Son, and in the gift of conscience.  He has given us faculties to discern the divine order in the world.  Law is thus not merely a means of social control to be manipulated by those in power to achieve their ends.  Making, interpreting, and executing law consistent with divine ordering is a high calling, not a power-grab or arbitrary assertion.

-from "Evangelicals and Catholics Together on Law: The Lord of Heaven and Earth - a Joint Statement by Evangelical and Catholic Legal Scholars", just published and accessible to read through the Journal of Christian Thought, the Summer 2013 issue, and the Journal of Catholic Social Thought.

This part of the joint statement (and the whole of it) I find to be profoundly encouraging and moving.  Practicing law can become so wearisome and such an invitation to cynicism.  In the hands of Christians at least, the process is potentially transformed.  While we Christian lawyers are liable to lose sight of our calling, non-lawyer Christians seem to fail utterly to see it. 

The faith community has generally lost the idea of vocation except as it applies to religious-workers.  How many times did I hear, growing up a Southern Baptist, that this person or that is giving himself to "full-time Christian service", as he marches off to seminary or the mission field.  No minister I ever heard of ever recognized a young person going off to law school that way! 

At best, the church communities tend to view the lawyers among them as leadership resources for the congregation or denomination and sources of financial support, and, at worst, as Christians who are caught in terrible tension between the dark demands of the law and their Christian faith.  The question I have been asked over the years, when the subject of being a Christian lawyer comes up, is a variation of the theme "How can you be a lawyer and a Christian."  The answer is that God calls Christians into the profession, and he will not call us into something in which he will not also be absolutely involved.

(Speaking of vocation, I would suggest that the next project for a joint statement is Evangelicals and Catholics Together on Business: The Lord of the Marketplace.)

Shirley Jones on the Diane Rhem Show Today

Wow, what a woman, Shirley Jones, a fixture at our house when the kids were growing up, when the main VHS cassette we had was "The Music Man".  "Oklahoma!" was the first screened musical I can remember seeing, and a wide-screen one at that at a Miami top of the line theater.  It even had an intermission.  Mom and I went.  (We were real movie-pals.) I had never seen Shirley Jones before in anything, and I found her simply amazing.

She has a new book out, entitled Shirley Jones: a Memoir, and Diane Rhem interviewed her today on NPR.  That interview is worth a visit.

UPDATE:  I downloaded the book via Kindle and have read the first third or so of it.  I think the interview will do for most people.  The author startles with details of her sexual history (and in the interview, one is forewarned of it).  The story, simply written, provides a window into the entertainment world and that world is as troubled as we bourgeoisie believe it to be.  Miss Jones was an extraordinarily gifted young-woman, in the right place and at the right time.  She appears not really to have been prepared for the fantastic world she entered.  (A Universalist religious upbringing.  No reading of the Great Books or equivalent life-apprentice experience, apparently.)  Approaching 80 years of age, however, she can write purple (and wear it) if she chooses.  She chooses.

And of course I'll finish the book.

SECOND UPDATE:  Finished the book.  It is an entertainment.  Ms. Jones is an entertainer.  The book, easy to read, has substance to it, however, as there clearly is substance to Ms. Jones herself.  Why did she remain devoted to her first husband for so long?  I think the fundamental answer is her devotion to her children, although she writes of him in indearing terms consistently, perhaps too consistently.  Dealing with him was obviously a terribly difficult situation for all of them.  She got their children, his son, and herself through it all with a sort of iron will, independence, and remarkable gifts.   

Ol' Dan Tucker died with Plantar Faciitis

Ol' Dan Tucker (or "Old Dan Tucker") is an old song I learned with a number of others as a very little boy.  I had a record player that was in a little suit case with a handle.  I could lay it down flat, open the top, plug in the cord, set a record on the turntable, turn it on, and place the needle at the edge of the 78 rpm disk. I remember a particular record - it was yellow - that had Oh Susannah, Ol' Dan Tucker, some nursery rhyme songs.  I played it all the time.

But I could never figure out the lyric that reports that Ol' Dan Tucker "died with a toothache in his heel."  Your teeth are in your head, I carefully reasoned.  How can you have a tooth ache in your foot?  I laughed.  Somebody was making a joke.

Somebody was telling the truth.

I hurt my right foot, specifically my right heel, at CrossFit a couple of months ago.  I ignored the pain, and the pain only got worse.  I finally limped to a podiatrist.  His diagnosis, after an x-ray and an MRI (I do what I can to support the medical profession these days), was plantar faciitis.  I had this problem once before, but the pain was centered at my arch.  This pain is in my heel.  Like a sharp nail is buried in it, point up.

And its killing me.  I probably won't die, but I finally understand what happened to Ol' Dan Tucker, poor guy.

Ali Ahmed: the 12-Year-Old Boy who Put Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to Shame

Artificial Sweeteners, Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease, and Stroke

On NPR's Science Friday yesterday, Ira Flatow interviewed Susan Swithers, Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience,  Purdue University, (PhD from Duke), and author of an "opinion paper" published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism with the following thesis:  artificial sweeteners may change your brain's sweetness pleasure centers and cause "metabolic derangements."  (The abstract of the paper, entitled "Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements" is here and the full text is here.)

Here are excerpts from the NPR interview, the full text of which and the audio as well are at the link in the first line of this post:

FLATOW: I'm very interested in what goes on in the brain, and reading your opinion paper and from scientific studies we have done in the past on this, it seems like your brain and your body sort of get confused about what's happening when they taste artificial sweeteners.

SWITHERS: Exactly. That's what we think is the big problem. So if we think about a world there are no artificial sweeteners, when we taste something sweet, it's often a sugar, and that means when the sweet taste hits our mouth, our bodies, our brains, based on this experience can learn to anticipate that calories and sugar are going to show up. And as a result, we'll start to produce changes, physiological changes, like the release of hormones and the activation of our metabolism so that we can deal with the arrival of those calories in that sugar. And we think that's kind of a learning process, and that helps us not only regulate how much we eat but also to keep our blood sugar in a more healthy range.

And now if you introduce an artificial sweetener, what you do is you get this very strong sweet taste in your mouth, but you don't get the consequences that normally ought to show up. No calories show up. No sugar shows up. And so your body will then adjust to that new reality by saying wait a minute, I've tasted something sweet. I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm not going to release those hormones, or I'm not going to release as many of those hormones. And that's what we really think the confusion comes from.

*   *   *

[W]hat [the confusion is] doing is making it so that when people taste something sweet that does deliver sugar and calories, they don't have as strong an ability to deal with that. So they drink a regular soda or they eat a piece of fruit, anything that taste sweet and does provide the sugar and calories, and their bodies can't anticipate that those are going to show up. And if these physiological processes normally help us regulate things like food intake, then that's where you run into the problem. We eat a chocolate cake. We don't know what's going to happen. And so we end up with these negative outcomes.

*   *   *

[O]ne of the things that might be happening is that some of these same hormones that are released in response to sugar that help us regulate food intake are also implicated in helping regulate not only blood sugar but having cardio-protective effects. And one of the things we tried to do in this paper was to sort of use converging approaches, so looking not only at large epidemiological studies in people but use more basic research where we can get more directly at mechanisms.

And those studies, for example, have suggested that there's a hormone named GLP-1 that is thought to play a role not only in helping regulate blood sugar [ed.: think diabetes] but also in satiety [ed.: think obesity] and also to have cardio-protective effects. So if it turns out that these artificial sweeteners blunt the release of a hormone like GLP-1, then over the long term we're going to be losing out on those sort of protective effects.

The entire entire interview (which is very short) is well worth reading (or hearing).

Professor Swithers has done earlier work that indicates a link between artificial sweeteners and weight-gain.

Phil Gramm on Tax Reform

In today's WSJ.

A wonderful dream, but still a dream.

The getting there would require a revolution.

Dan Lopez, a "Young Invicible", is not Stupid

Dan Lopez rarely gets sick and hasn’t been to a doctor in 10 years, so buying health insurance feels like a waste of money.

Even after the federal health overhaul takes full effect next year, the 24-year-old said he will probably decide to pay the $100 penalty for those who skirt the law’s requirement that all Americans purchase coverage.

“I don’t feel I should pay for something I don’t use,” said the Milwaukee resident, who makes about $48,000 a year working two part-time jobs.

Because he makes too much to qualify for government subsidies, Lopez would pay a premium of about $3,000 a year if he chose to buy health insurance.

“I shouldn’t be penalized for having good health,” he said.

Persuading young, healthy adults such as Lopez to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act is becoming a major concern for insurance companies as they scramble to comply with the law, which prohibits them from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and limits what they can charge to older policy holders.

Experts warn a lot of these so-called “young invincibles” could opt to pay the fine instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on insurance premiums. If enough young adults avoid the new insurance marketplace, it could throw off the entire equilibrium of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers are betting on the business of that group to offset the higher costs they will incur for older, sicker beneficiaries.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/05/3486990/health-insurers-fear-young-people.html#storylink=cpy

Study: China's Policy on Air Polution Cuts Life Expectancy by 5.5 Years

“Evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China’s Huai River policy”

This paper's findings suggest that an arbitrary Chinese policy that greatly increases total suspended particulates (TSPs) air pollution is causing the 500 million residents of Northern China to lose more than 2.5 billion life years of life expectancy. The quasi-experimental empirical approach is based on China’s Huai River policy, which provided free winter heating via the provision of coal for boilers in cities north of the Huai River but denied heat to the south. Using a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the Huai River, we find that ambient concentrations of TSPs are about 184 μg/m³ [95% confidence interval (CI): 61, 307] or 55% higher in the north. Further, the results indicate that life expectancies are about 5.5 y (95% CI: 0.8, 10.2) lower in the north owing to an increased incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality. More generally, the analysis suggests that long-term exposure to an additional 100 μg/m³ of TSPs is associated with a reduction in life expectancy at birth of about 3.0 y (95% CI: 0.4, 5.6).

-the Abstract of a study paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, July 8, 2013.

NIH: "Only Half of U.S. Youth Meet Physical Standards"

And those standards aren't so high.

What ever happend to the President' Council on Youth Fitness?  Ike introduced that program in the mid-1950s.  I clearly remember our phys ed teachers talking about it.  It had a very important impact.

Well, it's morphed into something else.  And our phys ed programs in the public schools are being cut.

If, however, we fight our wars with drones from an easy chair and a joy stick, what difference does it really make?  Right?

We will become like the dreaded Kaldanes in Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Chessmen of Mars:

[T]the Kaldanes are almost all head, but for six arachnoid legs and a pair of chelae. Their racial goal is to evolve further towards pure intellect and away from bodily existence:

It is only your brain that makes you superior to the banth, but your brain is bound by the limitations of your body. Not so, ours. With us brain is everything. Ninety per centum of our volume is brain. We have only the simplest of vital organs and they are very small for they do not have to assist in the support of a complicated system of nerves, muscles, flesh and bone. We have no lungs, for we do not require air. Far below the levels to which we can take the rykors is a vast network of burrows where the real life of the kaldane is lived. There the air-breathing rykor would perish as you would perish. There we have stored vast quantities of food in hermetically sealed chambers. It will last forever. Far beneath the surface is water that will flow for countless ages after the surface water is exhausted. We are preparing for the time we know must come -- the time when the last vestige of the Barsoomian atmosphere is spent -- when the waters and food are gone. For this purpose were we created, that there might not perish from the planet Nature's divinest creation -- the perfect brain. 

-from the Wikipedia article on the Kaldane. 

Except, somehow, I don't think the rest of the world is going to sit back and let us evolve that way.  You see, we have this nice lunch set before us every day, and the rest of the world wants to eat it.

Besides, John Carter made short work of the Kaldanes.  He had a terrific body and knew how to use it.  (His girlfriends weren't half bad either.)

Women More Vulnerable to Alcohol

Women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol's toxic effects. Their bodies have more fat, which retains alcohol, and less water, which dilutes it, so women drinking the same amount as men their size and weight become intoxicated more quickly. Males also have more of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. This may be one reason why alcohol-related liver and brain damage appear more quickly in heavy-drinking women than men.

*    *   *

[Is there a  female] drinking problem? Doctors around the world differ. The National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Department of Health and Human Services say that for American women, anything more than a drink a day is risky. In countries such as France, Italy and Spain, where life expectancy for women is longer, authorities set the safe threshold at double that—and sometimes higher.

-from the "Saturday Essay" in yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Gabrielle Glaser, entitled "Why She Drinks: Women and Alcohol Abuse."

It was hands off alcohol in my life until I went to college.  I cannot remember my parents telling me not to drink.  But they would not drink themselves.  We were Southern Baptists, and my dad told funny stories about how Baptists drank only behind closed doors with the shades pulled down.  In that way, I knew early on that drinking was something Baptists were not to do, if not for themselves personally but as an example to others who might have a sort of fatal propensity about liquor - we were to look out for our brother and be careful for ourselves.  I learned that Baptists sometimes would drink anyway - I learned about hypocrisy, alcohol, and the power of alcohol.

My dad told stories about men who had ruined their lives with alcohol, men whose intellect and drive he admired.  Stories were the way he made his points - he never preached at me.  And I didn't feel manipulated.  I could tell that he absolutely feared what could happen to himself and, then, to his family if he failed in this way (or any other way).   (He warned me about the  risks of sex outside of marriage this way: one example was a story he told me several times, about one of his friends in the Navy, who contracted what we now call an STD while they were stationed in Brazil during WWII.  And died of it.  He talked about what a fine man this fellow was, from a good Midwestern family.)

As to women and alcohol, I remember during Freshman Rush at Duke attending a frat party the ATO's threw.  It was the first time I had ever seen drunk women.  Furthermore, the women I saw were my age, and I was shocked.  They were so pretty and fresh, and so loose with "the brothers" in their conduct.  It simply depressed me, Baptist boy.  It still depresses me to see an inebriated woman.  Why is that?  I think I fear for them. They are defenseless and unprotected.

Years later, Carol and I attended a big party at the Indian Creek Country Club, a very exclusive place.  People were all dressed up.  It was something out of a movie.  The alcohol flowed.  Toward midnight, as the party was breaking up, Carol and I saw two women trying to make their way from the tables toward the exit.  They were stumbling drunk, and we were embarrassed for them.  We still talk about it now and then.      

Miami Heading Under Water

“It may be another century before the city is completely underwater (though some more pessimistic scientists predict it could be much sooner),” writes [Rolling Stone] contributing editor Jeff Goodell in the [Rolling Stone] piece, to run in the July 4 issue. “But life in the vibrant metropolis of 5.5 million people will begin to dissolve much quicker, most likely within a few decades. The rising waters will destroy Miami slowly, by seeping into wiring, roads, building foundations and drinking-water supplies — and quickly, by increasing the destructive power of hurricanes.”

Concerns of sea-level rise are not new, nor is the threat news to many South Floridians. But Goodell’s warnings of a watery Armageddon enabled by political ineptitude at the state and federal level generated a buzz Thursday — both supportive and cynical.

-from this morning's Miami Herald, reporting on the Rolling Stone article.

Somehow Venice still rocks along.  Furthermore, I think we have more to fear from "political ineptitude at the state and federal level" than the current meme about climate change.

Retirement Kills

New research presented in this paper indicates that being retired decreases physical, mental and self-assessed health. The adverse effects increase as the number of years spent in retirement increases.

The results vary somewhat depending on the model and research strategy employed. By way of example, the following results were obtained:

• Retirement decreases the likelihood of being in ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ self-assessed health by about 40 per cent
• Retirement increases the probability of suffering from clinical depression by about 40 per cent
• Retirement increases the probability of having at least one diagnosed physical condition by about 60 per cent
• Retirement increases the probability of taking a drug for such a condition by about 60 per cent.

Higher state pension ages are not only possible (given longer life expectancy) and desirable (given the fiscal costs of state pensions) but later retirement should, in fact, lead to better average health in retirement. As such the government should remove impediments to later retirement that are to be found in state pension systems, disability benefit provision and employment protection legislation.

-Gabriel Sahlgren for the Institute of Economic Affairs, London, in his article "Work Longer, Live Healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health and government policy," describing the results of his research on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).  Thanks to the American Association of Individual Investors, in its June 2013 issue of the AAII Journal, for reporting on the Sahlgren research.

The Shuckers Restaurant Deck Collapse: Thinking Inside the Box

The piling-supported deck of a waterfront North Miami Beach restaurant, under the weight of 100 or so patrons, collapsed recently.  The municipality in question had recently completed a building inspection that is mandatory for structures 40 years and older.  The restaurant passed the inspection.

“We took it for granted that the whole thing was in there,” said [Building Official Raul] Rodriguez, who signed off on the completed inspection in January.
 

*   *   *

The concrete blocks covering reinforced steel supporting the deck had deteriorated and  .   .   . much of the steel itself was eaten away, he said Monday in a press conference, four days after the deck of the popular spot collapsed, injuring 24 people as fans cheered on the Miami Heat.

Rodriguez also said Monday that after closely studying a required 40-year inspection for the restaurant and bar, he did not find any mention of an inspection of the deck.

Still, he said, the 40-year inspection determined all buildings and structures and electrical outlets on the property were in good working order – which village officials thought included the deck.

*   *   *

[Engineer Steven] Jawitz, who wrote the January report, responded that Miami-Dade County building code does not require the deck to be inspected. He said he only cleared the building and its electrical system. He refused to say why the deck wasn’t inspected, or whether that decision was his or the restaurant’s owners.

Another example of bureaucratic thinking that hurts people.  If it's not on my checklist, then it's not my job.  Never mind that the point of the exercise is the safety of the citizens who pay the taxes that support the bureaucrat.

And we want to entrust just everything to these people so we can do what, exactly?

Addendum:  Ultimately, the responsibility belongs to the owner.  I haven't verified this, but a friend told me that the owner had pulled a permit to repair the deck in 2011, but had not done anything further. 

"The Young Won't Buy Obamacare"

 [Supreme Court Justice Samuel] Alito pointed out that young, healthy adults today spend an average of $854 a year on health care. ObamaCare would require them to buy insurance policies expected to cost roughly $5,800. The law, then, isn't just asking them to pay for "the services that they are going to consume," he added. "The mandate is forcing these people to provide a huge subsidy to the insurance companies . . . to subsidize services that will be received by somebody else."

Since he puts it that way, why would they sign up for ObamaCare, especially since the alleged penalties will be negligible and likely unenforced?

-Holman Jenkins in today's WSJ.

A very sizable portion of the "somebody else" will be the Yuppie parents of the young people.  Pile this on top of the subsidy the young people are/will be paying to Social Security and other "entitlements".

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my children and their friends.

Men, Women, and Gender, the Incidental, the Essential

Is the essential about being a man or a woman different or is it the same?  I am referring to something beyond being a human being.  Is the way that a man is human essentially different from the way that a woman is human?   Or is there no difference?

This question has come up several times in the last couple of weeks.  It came up as Carol and I listened to some DVD talks by Richard Rohr, who seems to talk as if there is an essential difference between men and women but hedges so carefully about the issue - especially when he has younger women in his audience - that I begin to think that gender is cultural with him.

In my direct experience lately, the question has come up as I observe my wife and my daughter together preparing Mary's apartment for the residency journey, and myself, as I deal with too many "management" issues that seem without end, without a sort of "accomplishment" point or coda, when I can rest, that is, where I can reach a place where I am left alone for awhile, feel pretty good about what I accomplished up to that point, look around, and then decide what I want to do next.  I identify the former  - building, managing, and administering a living place, that is a family economy or village economy or a larger, community economy that will be comfortable and useful over time - with femaleness.  I identify getting to a successful finish, then resting, and then moving on to the next, essentially new task (not just another task or an old task that comes up cyclically) with maleness. 

Two brothers (I'm not referring to my sons) I knew were very successfully in business together, the one the "outside" person - the salesman, the personality, the one coming bck in with the new ideas, and the other the "inside," managing the processes, the employees, the architecture, so firm and sure. Is it more male to be the outside partner?  (But we have two males!)

Does it matter whether gender is essential or cultural?  I think it does, because cultural is changable, although sometimes at a great cost.  Essential, on the other hand, is not changeable.  Spending time challenging the essential is a waste of time, at best, and destructive, at worst.

I am not saying that the essence of being a man is being a husband and father or of being a woman being a wife and mother.  But I will say that the the race depends on this being the case often enough and it is because of the essential differences when it is the case, but it is not necessarily always the case and it does not need to be.  There is a way of being a doctor, I think, that will at some "essential" level  be a male way for men and a female way for women.  And that will be a very good thing.  It would be wrong, however, to deal with men and woman doctors by denying that the differences one sees belong to the essential.  At least so it seems to me.

Urban Farming with Micro-Greens in the Heart of a Miami Warehouse District

The three-acre Miami Green Railway Organic Workshop, or GROW.  Crazy.

Christian Gnosticism showing up: Showing up on unhealthy bodies.

A 2006 Purdue University study first broke the news that religious people tended to be heavier than nonreligious, with "fundamental Christians" weighing in as the heaviest of all religious groups.  Lead researcher Ken Ferraro minced no words: "America is becoming a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem."

-from an excellent article in the June 2013 issue of Christianity Today, entitled "The Fitness Driven Church."

More from the article, written by the very gifted Leslie Leyland Fields:

"We've been teaching very little about 'body,' and when we do, it's primarily negative: don't get drunk, don't smoke or take drugs, and don't have sex outside of marriage," Gary Thomas, author of Every Body Matters: Strengthening Your Body to Strengthen Your Soul, tells me. "Until recently, we've not known where to go from there."

After years of being a consumer of MSEM ("Mainstream Evangelical Media,") whether directly from the pulpit, in Sunday School classes, at conferences, magazines, etc., it has only been in the last several years that I awakened to what I describe as an aspect of Christian Gnosticism, an aspect that ignores the importance of what we put into our bodies and taking care of them.  Ms. Fields refers to the problem as "dualism".  Her article quotes 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and that's one of many appropriate Biblical references:

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

My kids will remind me that, years ago, when I taught a high school Sunday School class that each of them attended, I would bring to each class meeting a box of a dozen freshly baked donuts from Dunkin'.  Mea culpa.  On the subject of churches feeding children and young people bad food (not to mention adults), Ms. Fields reports:

An 18-year Northwestern University study released in 2011 found those who attended youth group as teenagers were 50 percent more likely to be obese by the time they were 50 than those who didn't.

(Two years I posted on a fine article in CT written by Leslie Leyland Fields on the matter of what church-goers eat.)

"Locked, Loaded, and Ready to Go!"

[A]ccording to a handful of quarterback tutors, including Trent Dilfer and Chris Weinke, among others who have recently praised Tebow’s changed throwing motion, he won’t be throwing his signature lame-duck passes for much longer, either.

“Like I told Tim when I found out (Monday) that he signed, ‘You’re locked and loaded, ready to go,’” Weinke told USA Today on Tuesday.

The most recent praise came from former IFL (Intense Football League) All-Star Dennis Gile, who worked extensively with Tebow on his throwing mechanics for more than three months in Scottsdale, Ariz., after last season. Gile, who was himself once signed by the Patriots as a undrafted free agent in 2003 but was subsequently released during training camp, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that Tebow’s throwing motion has become “100 times better.”

-from today's New York Dailey News.

All Things Do Not Automatically Work Themselves into a Pattern of Good.

Growing up at Central Baptist Church in the Fifties meant a lot of Scripture memorization.  It was not drudgery for a child.  In fact, because the adults took Scripture so seriously, a child quoting Scripture would become the center of admiring attention.  My mind filled up with Bible verses and even chapters, all King James Version.  The Scripture in that translation still inhabits me.  One fragment from Romans 8 is verse 28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

All things work together for good?

John Stott writes that

the familiar AV [KJV] rendering 'all things work together for good' is surely to be rejected, since all things do not automatically work themselves into a pattern of good.  The AV statement would be acceptable only if  'it is the sovereign guidance of God that is presumed as the undergirding and directing force behind all the events of life' [citation omitted].   An early copyist evidently felt the need to make this explicit by making 'God' as the subject of the verb.  But the manuscript for this reading, although 'both ancient and noteworthy' [citation omitted] is insufficient to secure its acceptance.  The addition is also unnecessary, for the order of the words permits the translation 'we know that for those who love God he is working .  .  . '.  He is ceaselessly, energetically, and purposefully working on their behalf.  Stott, The Message of Romans, p. 247.

The Revised English Bible (1989) gets it right:

[A]nd in everything, as we know, he [God] co-operates for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

The NIV (1983) somewhat similar:

And we know in all things [even sad and desperate things] God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

When things work out, absent God's cooperation they tend not to work out.

Better Late than Never for Wal-Mart and its Groceries

 Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is working to keep its produce aisles fresh, announced steps to improve the quality of its fresh fruits and vegetables.

The nation's largest grocer and retailer said Monday it is making more changes in its operations, training and sourcing as it looks to increase sales of bananas, lettuce and other produce and instill more confidence among shoppers looking for healthier choices.

-from an AP report in today's Herald.

Here's more:

But analysts say that despite Wal-Mart's pledge to make its food healthier, its produce often looks tired and well below the quality of rivals like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Costco and Kroger. C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, says that at Wal-Mart, some of the "produce is fresh, some isn't."

"It's not consistent," he says, describing some of the fresh fruit as "wilted."

Burt Flickinger III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group says it's key for grocers to make sure they offer the freshest strawberries, cabbage and the like since produce carries 50 percent higher profit margins than canned fruits and vegetables. It also adds a halo to the store brand and fosters shopper loyalty.

"Consumers don't have confidence in Wal-Mart's fresh produce the way they have confidence in Whole Foods, Costco and other competitors," says Flickinger. He and others say that a big factor is that Wal-Mart has cut so much store staff that it doesn't have as many workers to stock the shelves in a timely manner.

Look at those profit margins on produce.  One can do well by doing good in the retail food business.  What a concept.

The comment about Wal-Mart cutting its staff is very telling.  I remember a successful businessman in my church years ago telling me that "You've got to have good people working for you, Paul." 

Later, a successful business consultant, my older son's father in law, told me that he had never met a lawyer yet who had enough help.  What he was referring to is the tendancy of "good" lawyers not to let things go, that is, not to delegate and to develop people who are competent to receive delegation.  (You can't bill for teaching, and we worship the billable hour.)  He made that observation just as I was leaving the big firm and opening the small one.

It was the best practice advice I have ever received, and it came at just the right time.  At the old firm, I had a paralegal, a half a secretary, and one half of an associate.  (Plus a gigantic staff for 300- 400 lawyers, a staff with its own inertia and inefficiency.) The firm would not allow me to hire anyone else.  (Their advice was to work harder, if I had more work than I could presently handle.)

Now we are six lawyers, three paralegals, one secretary, and a lot of technology - all growing from the same practice.  (Plus a staff of five, some part time, who are extremely efficient and nimble.)

Meeting Steve Peifer

Carol and I had the honor of meeting Steve Peifer Saturday night.  We drove up to Boca Raton for dinner with Steve at P.F. Chang's, and Mary was with us.  She had gotten to know Steve and his wife well when Mary was at RVA.  I'm still thinking about that occasion with Steve, having never met anyone like him.  Ever. 

As evident in his recent book A Dream so Big,  he is a natural story teller.  He doesn't take several pages to tell the story.  He can grab you and finish you off in a paragraph on the written page and in a few sentences over a meal.  Grab you and finish with you unforgettably.  What a gift!

And there are gifts onto gifts with Steve, because his stories are about his interactions with people.  That gift on the gift of story telling is the way he creates a story.  He has a natural willingness to engage people in situations in which people like me would not engage (would not engage as my brothers the priest and the Levite in Luke 10 would not engage).  I would, for example, have ignored the young woman who walked up to Steve early one morning in a 24 hour grocery store in the States to  tell him in a challenging way about her very recent coke-fueled debauchery.  Steve said he looked at her and asked her what she was doing with her life.  She broke down in tears and followed him to his car in the parking lot, where they prayed and she gave her life to Christ.  And that wasn't it.  That story goes on about God's restorative Grace in this young woman's life.  Steve's right in the middle of it.  Good grief!  Wake up, Stokes!  What is going on around you into which God would call you if you just got out of and over yourself?

The Huffington Post has an excerpt of his book.

ECO Received into the WCRC

The World Council of Reformed Churches has received the Convenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians ("ECO") into its fellowship.  This is an important step in making ECO even more attractive to moderate and conservative PC(USA) congregations seeking a less riven denomination.  It has been more than a year in the making.

McClatchy's Two-Bit Smear of Michelle Bachmann

"[Bachmann, who will not seek a fifth term in Congress,] leaves a legacy of political missteps and lots of incendiary rhetoric - often loaded with false accusations and wild exaggerations."

-from today's Miami Herald, under "News" and not under "Opinion".

Are we surprised at the Herald's declining circulation and influence? 

(McClatchy Newspapers are the people who sold choice Miami waterfront to Hong Kong casino operators.)

Or maybe that award was for the coolest family.

Mary After the Awards Ceremony on Med School Graduation Day.

May 17, 2013. Rochester, NY.  Mary's graduation day from UR med school, right after the awards ceremony. 

The Only Thing that Counts

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

-Galatians 5:6b, Stott's text today in Through the Bible Through the Year.

My NIV Study Bible's note includes, "Faith is not mere intellectual assent (see Jas 2:18-19) but a living trust in God's grace that expresses itself in acts of love (see 1 Th. 1:3)."

I especially like the 1 Thessalonians 1:3 cross-reference in the NIV note:

We continually remember before our God and Father[, Paul writes,] your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The theme in Scott's text is Christian freedom.  One of the points he makes is the following:

Christian freedom is not freedom to exploit our neighbor.  Rather, "serve one another in love" (v 13 of Galatians 5). There is a powerful paradox here.  So far from having liberty to ignore, neglect, or abuse our neighbors, we are commanded to love them and through love to serve them.  So from one point of view Christian freedom is a form of slavery - not slavery to our selfish nature but to our neighbor.  We are free in relation to God but slaves in relation to each other.

I remember a preacher stating that a husband has no rights as far as his wife is concerned, only duties.  And vice versa.  I was willing to meet him half way on that proposition, the vice versa half of it.  He was completely right, of course.

Getting the Diploma and then the Sash

Standing in line, waiting for that MD diploma.

I have a Juris Doctor degree. No one calls me doctor. No one should.

See this post on "Dr. Biden" from Glenn Reynolds.  Hilarious. Sad.

A New Book; an Old Book; Mere Christianity

A new book is still on trial, and the amateur is not in a position to judge it.... The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity ("mere Christianity" as [Richard] Baxter [the 17th Century pastor] called it), which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can only be acquired from old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

-C.S. Lewis, God is in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 201-20s, as quoted in Foster and Smith, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals & Groups (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1993) p. 2.

As to "mere Christianity" and C.S. Lewis, go here.

CDC report: Illnesses linked to poultry, seafood rising.

Mary forwarded this from today's issue of the AMA's "Morning Rounds":

The AP (4/19) reports, "Bacteria commonly linked to raw milk and poultry is causing more and more food poisonings, health officials said." Over the past five years, the number of Campylobacter cases "grew by 14 percent," according to a report (pdf) released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the report, which the CDC refers to as "the nation's annual food safety report card," was "based on foodborne infections in only 10 states" (about 15% of the US population), it is considered to be a "good indicator of food poisoning trends."

        The Wall Street Journal (4/19, A3, Tomson, Subscription Publication, 2.29M) adds that the report also showed a 43-percent increase over the 2006-2008 rate of infections from Vibrio bacteria. Last July, cases of Vibrio, which has symptoms similar to cholera, prompted the Food and Drug Administration to issue a consumer warning against eating shellfish from Oyster Bay Harbor in Nassau County, New York. The Journal notes that an FDA spokesperson said the agency is accelerating its efforts to gain jurisdiction over how states implement plans to control for Vibrio contamination.

        The Los Angeles Times (4/19, Healy, 692K) "Booster Shots" blog says Vibrio and Campylobacter were "followed distantly by Shigella, Cryptosporidium, Escherichia coli, Vibrio, Yersinia, Listeria and Cyclosporidium," in the report. Of the "15,531 food-borne illnesses reported by the CDC's 10-site surveillance system in 2012, 4,563 resulted in hospitalization and 68 resulted in death." And although "Salmonella killed the largest number of infected patients, Listeria was the most deadly, killing 10.74% of the 121 patients who were infected by it."

        In its coverage of the CDC report, Bloomberg News (4/19, Armour) notes that the "Obama administration has been slow to fully enact the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, which was supposed to be the most sweeping overhaul of US food safety in 70 years." One of the "two regulatory proposals" the FDA released "Jan. 4 to carry out the core of the food safety act would give companies one year to develop a formal plan for preventing the causes of food illness. The second would force produce farms with a 'high risk' of contamination to develop new hygiene, soil and temperature controls."

        The CDC report is also covered by the Denver Post (4/19, Booth, 443K) "Daily Dose" blog, The Packer (4/19, Ohlemeier, 13K), HealthDay (4/19, Preidt), Medscape (4/19, Lewis) and MedPage Today (4/19, Petrochko).

 

        FDA commissioner requests more funding. Reuters (4/19, Clarke) reports Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, asked Congress on Thursday for more funding to enable the agency to improve food safety and importation oversight, as well as to design chemical- and biological-threat countermeasures. During her testimony at a budget hearing yesterday, Dr. Hamburg told a Senate appropriations subcommittee that the FDA is reducing the amount of money allocated to travel expenditures and training to weather some $209 million in Federal sequestration cuts the agency faces. She also noted that the agency is funded in part, through taxpayers but that the bulk of the FDA's money is garnered through the user fees that pharmaceutical companies pay to accelerate new product reviews. Reuters quotes Dr. Hamburg as saying, "FDA is a true bargain among federal agencies."

Camillus House Completes its $80 Million Upgrade; the Hon. C. Clyde Atkins; Murray Sams and My First Day in Federal Court (Updated)

The Herald today reports a hopeful advance in the care and rehabilitation of the Homeless in Miami.

Also today, the Herald reports the other side of the story.  The Homeless continue to impose a huge cost on Miami's development, impeding the renaissance of Downtown and near-Downtown.  The Hon. C. Clyde Atkins, US District Judge,  issued 20 years ago a restrictive ruling in response to high-handed police efforts to clear tent cities established by the Homeless.  (It reflected the settlement of a suit brought by the ACLU against the City of Miami.)  Those tent cities were on the doorstep of the cruise-ship terminals.  Now that venerable and even then (perhaps) impractical order is under attack.  Having spent most of my waking hours during that 20 year period working in and about Downtown Miami, I would say that it is very much time to give that order another look.

We should note, however, that Norwegian Cruise Lines is a big contributor to the Camillus House project, according to the first linked article.  One has to ask whether Camillus' success in raising funds and drawing positive attention from the private sector would have occurred without the obstacles that Judge Atkins' order created.

The church where I grew up, Central Baptist, is located across the street from a Federal office building that is part of a complex that includes the Federal Court House.  According to a story told me during the late 1980s - early 1990s by one of the members of that church, Judge Atkins' office was on the north side of that building, directly across the street from the south side of the church and its south-side entrance, which is quite wide.  An architectural feature of that entrance is a portico that extends over the sidewalk.  Because that part of the sidewalk was so well covered, homeless people would camp out there at night.  They made a mess, according to the people at the church, and it took some time each morning to clean up after the campers.

Judge Atkins apparently knew this was going on.  He could see this situation from his office window, according to the person who told me this story.  Judge Atkins called the church office one day and told the receptionist that the church was not to disturb the homeless camping under the portico.  The church did not.

My first appearance in federal court as a lawyer was in 1972.  It was before Judge Atkins and it was unplanned.  I was a green associate at Smathers & Thompson, and one of the partners asked me to review the court file of a case before him.  At that time, the federal judges kept the court files for their cases in their chambers rather than in the clerk's office, the practice in the state court system.  So I went to Judge Atkin's chambers and asked his secretary for permission to review the file. 

She said that the file was not in the office, but with the judge himself who was, at that very moment, conducting a hearing in the case.  I telephoned the partner and told him the situation.  Somehow he had not gotten the word that the judge had convened a hearing.  "Well," the partner said, "Go on in there and take care of this!"

So into the court room I went.  The lawyer on the other side was Murray Sams, Jr., a legendary trial lawyer.  Holy Cow!, I thought.  About the only other thing I remember, other than that it turned out all right that day, is that Murray came up to me just after the hearing.  In his thoroughly charming and gracious way, he introduced himself and welcomed me to federal court.  Then, he proceeded to tell me that my clients were involved with the Mafia and did I know that?  Murray Sams, the consummate advocate.

China Has Aborted 336 Million Babies since 1971

This, according to that country's own records apparently.

According to World Magazine's Jamie Dean, this number is "equvalent to the U. S. population".  Of course, the U. S. population would be much larger without our country's own abortions, government protected if not government sponsored.

A new estimate published by the National Right to Life Committee indicates there have been an estimated 54,559,615 abortions [in the U.S.] since the Supreme Court handed down its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision allowing virtually unlimited abortions.

-from a 1/23/12 post in LifeNews.com, a post a year old.  So the figure today would be greater.

I would suggest that the collective culpability of our nation is greater than China's, given our cultural and religious history, and the peace, freedom, and prosperity with which God has blessed us for over two centuries.  Think of what China has had to deal with in the last two centuries.  In the 20th Century alone, think of its exploitation by the West, its invasion by Japan, its civil wars, and the Cultural Revolution.  I don't say that to excuse China, because it also had a profound penetration by the Gospel in that century.  I am saying it to elucidate more fully our own moral situation here in the United States.

Controlling the Extravagent Demand for Medical Care

The medical economist Rashi Fein observed in 1986 that there are only three ways to limit the extravagant demand for medical care: "Inconvenience," the practice used in the military, where one must wait interminably for care. "Rules," the third-party approach by which layers of rules and thousands of regulations are devised, most recently in a fool's quest to contain costs under ObamaCare. And "Price." This last option elicits gasps and chest-clutching from bien pensants who insist that all financial impediments to care must be removed. Yet it has one incontestably beneficial attribute: It requires the physician to study the true cost and benefits of a course of action, and then to present that data to the patient. Who is better suited than the patient to assess the value to him of the proposed treatment? Kathleen Sebelius? You gotta be kidding. [Link added]

-from "Reflections of a Medical Ex-Practioner", by Ed Marsh, in yesterday's WSJ.  (Thanks, Carol.)

Hand Injuries

It has been over a year since Carol and I started the fitness program at CrossFit Downtown Miami.  We feel better and are stronger, and we have enjoyed the process. 

I have fallen three times, however: twice during the box-jump exercises and once while running when I tripped on an uneven sidewalk.  On one of those occasions, I injured my right hand and on another my left hand.  Both of those injuries have healed without any sort of intervention.  In fact, I have learned that aches, pains, and even injuries are not uncommon.  I have also learned that I probably have some osteo-arthritis, definitely in my hands and probably in my feet. 

I visited a hand specialist recently about some pain that persisted in my left hand.  He identified an arthritic bump at the base of the thumb on that hand and said the pain could come from it.  He also said I could simply have stretched some ligaments.  He said that the treatment in either case is the same, and gave me a written “Hand Arthritis Treatment Form.”  This is what the form said to do:

      1.       Heat (e.g. Paraffin Baths)

2.       Medications:  (a)   Tylenol,  (b)  NSAIDs: Ibuprofen (Advil), Alleve, Celebrex,  (c) Glucosamine &  Chondroitin

3.       Foods:   (a)  Cherries,  (b)Blueberries, (c) Pineapple, (d)  Turmeric, Flaxseed (oil)

4.       Creams: Capsaicin, Arnica, Voltaren

5.       Splints: www.beabletodo.com (a very cool site)

6.       Whole Body Exercise (Endorphins)

7.       Cortisone Injections

8.       Surgery

Additional Information on Hand Problems:  www.handcare.org

Except for 7 and 8, one can treat himself.  With the first injury, when I fell off the box and injured my left hand, the physician's assistant fitted me with a splint (5).  I threw it away after a day's use, and I got better anyway, although possibly slower.  The physician did not encourage 7, because he said it was temporary.  As to 8, he said that doctors like him have all kinds of things they can do, but said it in a way to indicate that I should stay away from surgery if I can.

Living Smug in Miami Springs

I am reading Steve Peifer's, A Dream So Big - Our Unlikely Journey to End the Years of Hunger.  I sometimes catch a few pages in the lunch room, but MetroRail is where I can read without interruption.  I have to be careful when reading the book, because Steve has a way of dropping in stories that make the tears well up and run down my cheeks.  So be warned.

I didn't cry about a story on page 142, where I am now, but I did have to stop and post about it, even though I have a crushing amount of work to do:  It's about "a young man named Moses" whom Steve met in Nairobi when waiting for a shipment from the states to be inspected.  Steve writes that Moses "was a newlywed and made a fair living at the freight yard, but lived in one of the worst slums in Kenya."  Steve asked why he lived there. "He explained that because he was the eldest son in his family, it was his duty to help his younger brothers and sisters complete their education.  Because he was currently paying his younger brother's school tuition, he could not afford any housing except the slum."

What first struck me is the very high value I assign to living in a safe, comfortable home in Miami Springs.  I have taken a lot of pride over the years in not living in a much bigger home and in a swankier place than modest Miami Springs.  My strategy has been to live generally at a standard of living below our income, leaving room for important exceptions, such as private higher education for my children, reduction and avoidance of debt, release of Carol's time to parent rather than to "work outside the home."  However, I don't think we could have been more comfortable and happy in a house twice the size of the one we have or in a neighborhood with more expensive houses.  It really wasn't much of a sacrifice at all.  To the contrary.

But live in a slum?  For the sake of a younger brother so he could go to school?  As I think about it, I might do that for my brother or sister or my children or someone in the extended family.

There is a problem with that question, however.  It won't stay put.  It begs, at least for a Jesus follower, other questions:  Who is my brother?  What if his need is not only education but medical attention, food, or shelter?  What then?  Are the answers to those questions different, that is easier, if I am 66 instead of 36 or is there really no difference at all?

Will living smug in Miami Springs continue to do?

Sowell's New Book: Intellectuals and Race

There is a two-part interview of the author.  The first part is here and the second here. 

Intellectuals and Race is at Amazon here.

I particularly liked Sowell's discussion of David Hume and the Scots, which is held in the context of a larger discussion about the dogma of "multiculturalism" and how it holds people back.  (This is in the second half of the interview):

"AmSpec: Let’s talk about the example of David Hume and the Scots and the path they followed.

"Sowell: The role Hume played was one diametrically opposed by that played by most intellectuals as regards ethnic groups that are lagging behind. He wanted the Scots to master the English language. And that’s what they did. There were places all over Scotland that were giving lessons in English. The Scots learned that and it greatly expanded their cultural universe. I don’t know if there were any books in Gaelic in Scotland, and you were unlikely to learn chemistry or anything like that in Gaelic. The Scots came out of nowhere. They were very backward at one point. But from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century many of the leading British intellectuals came from Scottish ancestry, including John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith."

Brazil Views Immigration as a Valuable "Flow of Minds" into its Economy

While the United States wrangles over immigration policy, Brazil has already made up its mind about immigrants. It wants more — as many as 6 million more.

They’re needed, said Brazilian officials, to accelerate Brazil’s development.

“In a globalized world, we need not only the flow of goods and services but also the flow of minds,’’ said Brazil’s Secretary of Strategic Affairs Ricardo Paes de Barros. “We’re not after population; we’re after talent and human capital. By opening society, we can accelerate the development process.”

-from "Brazil is in the market for immigrants" in today's Miami Herald.

Compare the World Magazine article in its February issue, "Friend or foe," which shows the link between some of those opposed to immigration reform and their promotion of abortion on demand.  There is a sinister consistency with that opposition: cut-off the flow of minds into our country from any source, whether from the womb or from other countries.

Frank Frazetta

I read all the Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks that the Miami Springs library had when I was at the threshold of adolescence.  That interest had nothing to do with the Mr. Frazetta's cover art.  Nothing.       

Rest and Nutrition. What a Concept.

[New Philadelphia Eagles Coach Chip] Kelly is not coy about embracing science, as evidenced by the hiring of a sports-science coordinator. There are two specific areas that Kelly has addressed: sleep and nutrition. He said an elite athlete requires 10 to 12 hours of sleep. He believes there's a best physiological time to practice, but he still needs to figure out the logistics for the Eagles. He also pays attention to what his players eat and when.

"Everybody has a dining hall, and they're not eating Tastykakes and Chickie's and Pete's fries every night," Kelly said. "When you get to this level you are always talking about nutrition and their diet and things like that. Some guys do it, and some guys leave the building and go to McDonald's.

"[The question is,] did you get the right guy who is going to buy into what you're doing?"

-From "Eagles Coach Chip Kelly: 'I'm no genius' " in the Philadelphia Inquirer 4 days ago.

Digital Dislocation

The WSJ today reports that Scholastic Corp, will have a wider fiscal third quarter loss than expected.  The primary reason, according to the article, is the fall in sales of the Hunger Games trilogy, which Scholastic owns.  But

Scholastic also said it was stung by delays in educational-product purchases as school districts turn more to training and digital investments. 

Well, of course.

We upgraded the workstations at our office last week, and included in that upgrade are dual monitors for each station.  (A few of us had them already.)  This greatly facilitates our digital document production and research.  We expect to move or renovate our offices soon and hope to convert a great deal of our paper files to digital as we do so and not to retain future paper documents as they (decreasingly?) come in the front door.  This may be old hat to most business by now.  However, remember that we are lawyers and lawyers are deadly about innovation.

There have been battles between the FL legislature and our court system about funding the bureaucracies in each county known as "the Clerk's office."  There were serious state employee lay-offs following the Great Recession and lots of complaining from court staff and delays is the local "Clerk's office."  But now the court system is well into email court filing, digital record retention, and the use of the internet for all sorts of functions.  Would that system have moved in this direction without the recession?

I bought a new book on Amazon the other day, Steve Piefer's A Dream So Big.  The spread between the Prime hardback cost and the cost of the Kindle edition is only about $2.  I used to prefer the hardbacks, but now I am evenly divided over the issue.  For a book like this one, I would have bought the Kindle edition.  (What stopped me from getting the Kindle edition is that for the second time my cheap Kindle broke down.  Next stop, I think, is the smaller iPad.  Carol has made great use of her iPad.)

A big box of paper documents just came into my office, documents that I must review today.  My knee-jerk reaction is, "I don't want to see this box cluttering up my office and my file cabinets.  Put them in digital format.  Give me a reader that works."

I trust someone is working on a profoundly robust back-up system.  We have what we have, but the economy-wide race to digital worries me (and I'm sure a lot of other people) about the national interest in this respect.

Thirty-one years ago, when my dad reached age 70, he bought an IBM PC for his home office.  A new insurance product, adjustable life, had arrived on the market, and one needed a computer to understand and sell it.  (The insurance companies developed that product in response to the economic recession in the late 70s and the rampant inflation that followed it.)  He didn't hesitate to adopt both the tool and the product.  (He continued working until congestive heart failure finally retired him about age 80.)

Brave new world.

Let's Just Tax the Young People

From "Workers Saving Too Little to Retire" in today's WSJ.

"Miami is the Center of the Universe"

The renovation of the NE corner of the airport fully explained.

Cancer's Biography

Mary sent me Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, New York Times Bestseller, Winner of the Publitzer Prize, etc. and etc.  I am on page 169 of its 571 pages, and I can confidently state that the book and its author richly deserve such recognition.  As a survivor of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, diagnosed nearly 20 years ago, I can also say that my family and I lived part of that biography within a community of others with the same diagnosis and with their loved ones.  About half of us with that diagnosis survived.

George P. Canellos, MD, shows up several times in the bio.  After my oncologist delivered his diagnosis and recommended chemotherapy ("CHOP"), we asked him for a reference to another physician for a second opinion.  He suggested Dr. Canellos at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.  Dr. Canellos would see us, so we made the appointment, sent some records on ahead, and made a one day trip, up and back.

Dr. Canellos was warm and encouraging, he approved the treatment, and said I would live to be an old man.  (Working on it.)  Until I started reading this book, I had only a dim idea of what American medicine (and heroic cancer patients and their families) had to go through for him to arrive at such a prognosis.

Another Big NY Firm Jettisons Trusts and Estates

Corporate law firms once viewed trusts and estates as a small yet important practice that discreetly advised wealthy families. But drafting wills and trusts, and the legal matters that flow from that, is less lucrative than the primary revenue drivers at big law firms: multibillion-dollar corporate transactions and high-stakes litigation.

And there are problems with trusts and estates within a big law firm model. The practice, to use the law firm management parlance, is not as leverageable as other areas. Corporate and litigation partners generate big fees by assigning armies of junior lawyers to megamergers and complex lawsuits. By comparison, trusts and estates work requires far less manpower, which mean far less profit.

Another issue in sustaining these departments is that individual clients bristle at billable rates that now reach more than $1,000 an hour. While big corporations grudgingly pay those rates, wealthy families often resist them.

As a result of these dynamics, firms’ trusts and estates practices have remained small and, in many cases, decreased. At the same time, firms have aggressively built up their corporate and litigation practices across the globe. They have also embraced hot, moneymaking practice areas like patent law and white-collar criminal defense.

-from "Debevoise & Plimpton Drops its Trusts and Estates Practice,"  in the Feb. 5 New York Times.

The process of large law firms pushing out their trusts and estates practices has been going for 20 years or more.  Perhaps a key factor in this particular situation is a lock-step compensation system for senior partners.  It has always seemed to me, however, that the big firms could simply pay the T&E lawyers less, unless the overhead structure is so burdensome in the big firm that the T&E lawyers would do better in a small firm setting.  That is an argument that I hear from T&E lawyers who would prefer to practice in boutique firms and not to join a larger firm with a diverse practice. 

We get several inquiries a year from large firms seeking a merger.  Haven't bitten yet.

Top Schools Suing Grad Students Who Default on Perkins Loans

The Russians report the story this way:

Graduate student borrowers are defaulting on almost US$1 billion in federal loans that were given out to the poor. US colleges such as Yale, Penn State and George Washington are coming after them in the courts, suing for nonpayment.

-from "Wealthiest US Colleges Suing Students over Default loans" from the RT website.

Bloomberg reports it this way:

Needy U.S. borrowers are defaulting on almost $1 billion in federal student loans earmarked for the poor, leaving schools such as Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania with little choice except to sue their graduates.

From "Yale Suing Former Students Shows Crisis in Loans to Poor" from the Bloomberg News Website.

The government is holding the schools accountable that admitted the subject students in the first place. Those subsidies increased the demand for the grad school's education.  Increased demand meant higher fees and expenses could be charged by the schools, which meant the students needed to borrow further, a malignant cycle, no?  Now the schools sue the former students.  We trust that prospective students are much more wary.

I have to question Bloomberg's assertion that the schools have "little choice except to sue their graduates," especially the top ones, with huge endowments, vast fixed assets, and prosperous alumni.  They could start paying the government back right now and not wait on how their lawsuits turn out.  But perhaps they are.

Surely some of the grad students, especially the ones who can't find jobs, will countersue the schools, alleging misrepresentation about the status of the jobs market and a failure on the part of the school to determine whether the student would be able to pay back the school before admitting the student in the first place.

I would be interested in how many suits the government has against the schools.  Probably none at this point.  It ought to happen.

In any event, this probably indicates that government subsidies of higher education generally are at serious risk. In fact, the articles state that this is the case. The higher-education bubble that Glenn Reynolds describes continues its slow motion burst.  It would seem to me the entire business model of the university is experiencing a "creative destruction" wave of the sort that other business and social sectors have experienced.  It's time.

80% US Men, 77% Women Overweight

The United States clearly has a weight problem. The World Health Organization says a third of American adults were obese in 2008, and 69.4 percent were overweight. Two years later, WHO said 80 percent of American adult men were overweight, along with 77 percent of women. Obesity accounts for at least $150 billion a year in American health care spending.

-from "Obesity and its Consequences Spreading Rapidly" in the Dallas Morning News.

This is getting to be pretty old news.  In light of the government (and its taxpayers) having taken on the task of keeping us all well, perhaps we will see a different approach to the farm subsidies that prop up the meat, fructose corn syrup enablers, sugar, and cow milk producers.

Entering the Windows 8 World

We flew from Ft. Lauderdale to Austin for Christmas.  On the SW Airlines concourse at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, near our departure gate, Microsoft had planted a demonstration area for Windows 8, complete with several tall tables with computer devices on them and people there to assist you with them.  If you "toured" Windows 8 on one of the devices, you got a prize.  In addition, you received a $25 dollar coupon on a SW Air "getaway" flight.  I bit.  I worked with Windows 8 on a Windows "Slate," a beautiful object, every bit as attractive as anything Apple might produce.

I was in the market for a new laptop, because my MacBook had been stolen.  The introduction to Windows 8 led to my purchase of an Asus VivoBook X202E-DH31T 11.6-Inch Touch Laptop. This is light enough to easily carry in my briefcase.  It doesn't have a disk drive, but Asus sells an outboard unit that I added for use at home, and it works very well.  All of this at not much more than half the price of a new MacBook, and I get to try out Windows 8 and a touch-screen device in the bargain.

According to CNET, Intel is pushing very hard for the adoption of touch-screen technology.