Fly The Friendly Skies

This past weekend, we saw a major failure of the international anti-terrorist security system. The Netherlands, along with a host of other nations more inimical to the interests of the United States, allowed a radical Islamist to board a plane bound for the United States with explosive materials in his possession. It was only the hand of the lord which prevented a major airline disaster.

The frightening thing is that the agency in charge of airline security in the Netherlands claims that all procedures were exactly followed and implemented as written. This flies in the face of all the facts that have been revealed since the incident unless one concludes that the agency is telling us that all the inconvenience to passengers and intrusive procedures that have been instituted since 9/11 has been totally ineffective.

That run-down nations like Nigeria and Yemen, who harbor no liking for the United States and very little concern for human dignity or human life, should do a slapdash job of checking for terrorists or the possibility of terrorism is understandable. Not so with a progressive country like the Netherlands and therein lies the rub. If the security procedures are indeed effective then it seems, despite the protests of the Netherlands authorities, that someone wasn't properly doing his job.

Upon serious deliberations we came up with the perfect solution for the worldwide airline security crisis that has plagued the United States. Before any flight originating from a foreign country leaves its gate, a member of the security team which checked the passengers must certify that the plane is safe and then board the plane for the trip. If that doesn't ensure a more thorough check of security threats, nothing will.

I agree that the foregoing is a radical, rather impractical solution. The current thinking goes something like this: When the shoe bomber tried to blow up a plane we started to check passengers' shoes now we will have to check everyone's crotch, and in the future when someone finally comes up with the ultimate hiding places, everyone will have to throw up and void before getting on a plane.

The true solution is that we have to get tougher with our enemies. We have to do profiling, we have to do as much intrusive searching as we are technically able to do we have to put a total embargo on travelers who are nationals of countries inimical to our interests, and we have to minutely screen by means of personal interview anyone who has traveled to embargoed countries. We have to gain the ascendency over those who wish us harm and, yes, it will cost us, in treasure, and in lives.

The current outlook for this is dismal. We have a president who gives fine speeches but doesn't have the stomach or the willingness to hit our enemies where it hurts. The 9/11 criminals have been given a public forum for their denunciations when they are brought to trial. Our ability to get information from our captives has been emasculated. Our policy regarding piracy on the high seas reflects a pusillanimity unbecoming a nation with historically unprecedented strength.

Ironically, other less endowed nations have come to the realization that it is do or die. The Mexicans are fighting a battle to the death with their criminal drug elements and the Pakistanis are doing the same with their home-grown Al Quaida. Even the Europeans are beginning to see the threat from radical islam and the people are becoming disenchanted with their high sounding but hollow principles.

Maybe there is yet hope that we will come to our senses before it's too late.

NPR and You

We recently ran some posts on the lack of comments to our other posts as well as to our lack of production. It seems we have been lax in not posting enough food for thought. When this blog began we posted almost one per day (excluding Saturday) but now we are down to about 2 per week.

I think the two issues are related. When we post a new work, the older work, which may not have yet been read by our loyal readership, takes a subordinate position and may not be read at all in the future. So, understandably, we are loath to publish until we feel that everyone has seen the previous post.

We have no other method to evaluate the popularity of our content other than by getting your feedback in the comments section. Nielsen is a possibility but the management here at Dr. G. cannot come up with the necessary funds to purchase their services. Maybe we should initiate a fund drive like the public radio stations do. On second thought, if we can't even get you to comment for free, I doubt we could get any money out of you skinflints.

The Fat Lady Has Not Yet Sung

Now that the posturing, negotiating, double dealing, and compromising about the ill-considered health care reform bill is all but over, let's examine its prospects in becoming law.

The basics of this bill, (particularly the Senate version of it) was masterfully summed up by senator Mitch McConnell just before the first cloture vote in the dead of night early Monday morning. It is contained in congressional record page S13643. Click here for the first page which begins in the rightmost column then close the pdf and click on "next page" of the screen that appears
His impassioned plea didn't move a single vote. Each player in this game gained something for his constituency or his ego while the wider public lost a great deal.

So where do we go from here? If this bill passes the Senate, it still needs to be reconciled with the House version and this is done by means of a conference committee. The committee is appointed by the leadership of each house, respectively and usually consists of the chairmen and ranking members of the permanent committees that worked on the bill. There does not need to be an equal number of members from both houses.

The work of this committee (most of which is done behind closed doors) consists of hashing out a compromise between one version and another. So, for instance, if a bill from the House sets aside a million dollars for something and the Senate version two million dollars, the conferees decide on one and a half million. The purpose is to get one version hashed out. When that is done, the bill is then sent back to both houses to vote on it as is. A simple majority is required in each house.

I can't see how this bill can be reconciled. Although the Senate is on the way to a straight party line vote which will mean the Democrats have 60 votes to the Republican's 40, the House bill had only a 5 vote difference which means that if three congressmen had changed their vote from yea to nay, the bill would have been defeated.

One of the unknowns in this game is whether or not the conference report (bill) can be fillibustered. There is quite a difference of opinion on that. If it can be fillibustered, then the Senate leadership will still need 60 votes to pass this and that would mean that all the compromises made to accommodate each individual senator would have to be kept pretty much intact. If it can't be fillibustered, then the Democrats only need 50 votes to pass it and they certainly would have enough votes even if some senators desert the caucus.

The House is a different story. In order for it to pass, they need every vote they originally got. It's inconceivable to me that when the conference bill finally emerges that it won't contain something that at least 3 representatives who originally voted for the bill wouldn't take umbrage to and vote against. The main candidates for this would be abortion, the public option, and financing (taxes). Some liberals, whose dream of having the government increase its stranglehold on people's lives seems within their grasp will vote for the bill with or without the public option since it does contain the requirement that every citizen buy health insurance. Others, anti-capitalists among them, may object that the insurance companies get a windfall without the public option and vote against it. If the conference bill weakens the Stupak ammendment on abortion, some of the blue dog democrats might desert the party and vote against the bill.

On top of all this, the polls increasingly show that the public is against the bill and this could influence some representatives to rethink their commitment to it, especially after the holiday visit back home where they will certainly hear from their constituents in person.

Bottom line: It's not a done deal by a far shot.

To Whom Belongs this Coat?

We recently attended a family celebration in another city, about an hour and a half drive from home. It was a cold night and necessitated some outerwear. My wife took her coat out of the coat closet and was ready to go. Before we left, daughter took a series of pictures of her parents, dressed for a party.

When we arrived at the party locale, we hung our coats on the rack provided for the guests and joined the other guests.

When it came time to leave, my wife took a while to come outside and when she did, it was sans coat. I didn't understand what had happened and it turned out that her coat was missing. I went back in to check and noticed a coat that looked very much like the one she came in, and it was hanging in the exact place the original coat had been hung. I am usually not very observant but I could plainly see that this was not my wife's coat. We therefore decided to leave it where it was but asked the hostess to take it home in case no one else claimed it.

Upon arrival home, putting her pashmina in the closet, she exclaimed "Here's my coat!" Well, even Houdini couldn't do this trick effectively. Turns out, she had taken daughter's coat.

When I asked daughter if she had gotten her coat back, she indicated that she didn't really use that coat very much and as an indication of how little she used it she said, "I took five pictures of it and didn't even notice it was mine!"

Audience Participation

A while back, our friends at Iceberg Carwash posted several pieces on the comments they received or didn't receive. A metric called CPP (comments per post) was established, and although the ultimate numbers were never revealed, it became obvious that the metric was important in judging the success of the blog.

Alas, here at Dr. G we notice that although we generate a lot of commentary on our irrelevance or stupidity, our posts on political or social matters or just plain artsy posts don't generate much interest at all. We have tried poetry, social comment, rants, music reviews, political commentary all without igniting the spark that will burgeon into the raging fire of debate.

So the question is, what can stir you out of your torpor?

Let us know.

WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?

I see where North Korea is again making threats against South Korea and implicitly against the United States in threatening to use disputed sea areas of the west coast of Korea for ordnance practice. This comes at the same time that our pusillanimous envoys are making nice to them in another futile round of diplomatic efforts to get the Koreans to give up their nuclear program.

If the lessons of history can tell us anything it is that the longer a strong country allows itself to be bluffed by a weak one the better the chance that the weak one will become stronger. In 1936, the Germans marched an army into the Rhineland, an area declared to remain demilitarized by the treaty of Versailles. The German military had strict orders that if even one shot was fired against them, they were to turn tail and leave. But not one Frenchman even lifted a gun to stop the depredation. Two years later, at Munich, the victors of World War I calmly gave away Czech sovereignty to the loser of the conflict. The Germans were still not as strong as they ultimately became but they were stronger than they had been in 1936. The loss of Czechoslovakia to the Germans greatly increased their strength further and denied Czechoslovakia's industrial might to the allied powers.

The former Soviet Union bullied and bluffed the western powers for close to 70 years, and with the help of the United States developed from a backwards, agrarian nation into an industrial one (still backwards though) that fomented untold trouble for the US and its allies. Although the Soviet Union fell under the force of Reagan's economic warfare, its successor, Russia, continues to bluff and bully, demanding a place at the table among the strong industrial economies when its economy barely matches that of several of the US individual states.

I can understand that the US doesn't want to get involved in a third war (if it even can) in Asia. But I can't see a great effort needed for the most powerful and richest country in the world to teach a lesson to a tenth rate starving nation. Yes they have a large army. Yes, they may have some nuclear weapons although it isn't clear if they or their delivery systems work. I wonder what would happen if some serious damage were done to their most sophisticated installations and modernized cities. If their leaders were somehow incapacitated, what good would their army do them? These are desperate people and the leadership would very quickly be at each others' throats, nullifying their ability to mount a meaningful attack anywhere. If they did manage to fire some nuclear warheads, the most likely target would be South Korea so I can understand why the south doesn't want any action by the US that isn't cleared by them.

More's the pity, because the north will eventually take on the south anyway and the longer we wait the worse will be the result.

Hello Mr. ______.

When did the children of my contemporaries become my contemporaries?


Recently, I noticed that a few young men, children of friends or acquaintances of mine, have taken to calling me by my first name. ( G.W., if you are all paying attention)


Now, this is behavior that I have never overtly encouraged, nor implied that it is acceptable. In fact, it usually doesn't happen, and when it does, I will either ignore the friendly salutation and the person uttering it, or, if it seems like an honest mistake, gently correct them, usually through one of my children with whom they are friendly.


I know that many people my age feel that it is silly to insist on the formality, and I always assumed I would be a friend of the little (young) people, and have an easy friendly relationship. However, I have found that if you are too chummy with these little people, they very quickly cross the line into rudeness, so it is good to have the separation of an adult title.

Even when they are a bit older, like high teens - low twenties, I just don't feel comfortable being on a first name basis with these kids. ( Yes, they are still kids, even if they are married). I am old enough to be their parent, or I have their age in a multiple. I just think that the formality is good to remind the younger generation that a certain respect is due a previous generation.

I feel that I am not a hypocrite in this matter, since I am uncomfortable personally referring to my parent's friends by their first names, even if they insist on it. I also occasionally feel funny referring to someone 15 years older than me who have children I am friendly with by their first names, but this is more my generation already, as sometimes I am friendly with their kids, but other children of theirs are the same age as my children. I guess it really depends on the basis of the relationship.

However, the problem starts with first name calling, but can lead to much worse forms of disrespect, for teachers, Rabbis and other authortity figures who deserve to be treated with a degree of deferrence.

Ultimately, it seems that this generation just does not have the proper respect. I wonder who is responsible for that.

Writers Block or Complacency?

I just noticed that the Good Doctor is "up to" 98 posts for the year. This number might look good on its own ( wow! almost 100!) however, I think it must be put in context.


In 2008, when the blog was in creation for a total of 62 days, there were 59 posts. Almost one a day. Since that time, to date, there have been 349 days, an average of 3.56 days per post, (or .28 posts per day, for all you statisticians over at the 'berg). I find this sad, that we have let our fans down by not publishing enough of the wit and wisdom that this site has become known for.


So, what is the reason for this? Are we busier ( yes), has the first blush of the joys of publishing worn off (not really), did we have LOTS of stuff stored up that HAD to come out immediately ( probably), have our lives become such that there is nothing to share with you anymore ( HECK, no)?


Who knows, its just something to ponder as we approach the end of this calendar year, a resolution to be more prolific in the next year. I think I will dabble a bit more in politics and current events, something I have been avoiding for much of this year. One thing's for sure, context is important ( WOW, ALMOST 100!!!) and it is abused waaay to many times by the media.


But now I have ALL OF THAT STUFF stored up and ready to rip.


So get ready.

Patterson for Mayor, or Public Advocate

I think the one person in New York politics who makes everyone else look better is our dear governor ( no pun intended).

I have the wonderful opportunity to be subjected to one of his speeches the other day while waiting in the Department of Buildings. Since I was stuck waiting there, I heard more him speaking that the usual sound bites on the news.

Wow, frightening stuff. He was talking to Wall Street, trying to say how important they were to New York State. An admirable sentiment, but one that he just kept saying over and over and over.

And that was the good part.

Where he lost me was when he referred to something as "weaved" as opposed to "woven". ( know it can be both, but woven was the right one for the reference he was making). But even if you disagree that this is the wrong usage, the next comment that caught my attention was his point that one should object to anyone who says that Wall Street is not an integral part of New York. he gave examples as to other states and their industries, such as Michigan and cars, Maryland and Clam Chowder, and when he got to Texas he said ( as close as I can remember it

If you tell them in Texas to give up oil, they will string you up the nearest tree."

Texas, a black man, and a reference to lynching. He couldn't POSSIBLY have come up with something else?? However, he will get a pass for two reasons. One, he is a blithering idiot, so no one will care, and two, he is black, so he can say it.

I am just waiting until the line is attributed to Rush.

Boondoggle City

I went to Court today, hoping for some material to write about. Alas, nothing.

However,

After court I had the (mis)fortune to have to deal with something at the buildings department. I knew that I was in for a rough ride when the "guard" who runs the magnetometer and X-ray machine made me check my radio. My cell phone with a camera was fine, as was the digital camcorder I had in my pocket, but for some reason, the radio for the volunteer ambulance squad is a problem. I happen to know that there is a letter from the city that allows me to carry it, but I figured getting into a battle of wits with these clearly unarmed members (I DON'T mean guns) of the security team would not be productive, so I just let it go.

Then the fun really started. I went to the office I needed to be in. After ten minutes, someone sauntered out and took my paperwork. He came back fifteen minutes later having filled out a receipt and one line on another paper, and told me to go downstairs and pay and then return.

"Easy enough" I figured, forgetting that I haven't had to deal with idiotic city agencies in quite some time. Well, first, you have to get on a line in order to get a ticket to get into the queue to be seen. This involves another ten minute wait to show the girl my paperwork, as well as ID. (Ostensibly to prevent other people from paying my company's fines.) Then another ten minute wait for the cashier, who was about as friendly as the first girl. ( Not very, in case you are wondering).

After this, you would think the transaction would be finished. However, if you were paying attention above, or if you know how the city works, this is of course not the case. I then had to go back to the FIRST office, ask to see the same gentleman, wait the requisite ten additional minutes for him to walk the probable thirty feet or less to the reception area to exchange the receipt I was given for the one he was holding, and a pre-printed letter with his addition of a check mark.

Now you have an understanding why the city is going bankrupt, as well as why no one wants to do business in or with the city.

Mom knows best

I was listening to the radio recently and I heard ad for the new kind of thermometer that promises to give an accurate reading with just a swipe of the forehead. What got my attention the most was the kid in the ad, who whines "I hate the one that goes in the ear".



This struck me as extremely funny for two reasons. One, in my day, the complaint was similar, but the last word had an extra letter. Two, the in the ear thermometer was such an advancement when it came out, especially over the previous, aforementioned measurement procedure. We were amazed that a temperature could be obtained so quickly and accurately without all the previous fuss. Now this is known as the archaic method to get a temperature, and people are complaining that it is too uncomfortable.



I am not sure when I became an old man yellin' at the young whippersnappers that they don't know how good they have it, but considering the speed of technology today, I am not surprised that it happened a lot earlier than I thought it would.



On the flip side, the other approved method for taking temperature when I was a kid was my mother's lips on my forehead. ("you're fine. go to school"). So really the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Calling all cowards

We received an anonymous comment on a piece I recently wrote about the citizens of Jerusalem. The comment was a nasty personal attack upon myself. In discussions with the good doctor, we decided not to publish the post.

Not that I mind criticism. What bothers me about it is that the writer is too cowardly to come out into the open and stand behind his opinions and his aggressive posture. I am fully capable of civilized debate and stand behind my own opinions. I can just as easily counter an opposing argument as I can concede that I am wrong. Despite what anyone may think, I come by my views largely by experience peppered with a slight bit of preconceived ideas but I know the difference between reason and emotion. I can give you a good exposition of the thought processes that shaped my stance on a particular issue and I welcome the chance to do so.

So if you would like to comment, by all means do so, but I need to know who you are. I am unwilling to fight with shadows.

Green Friday III

I would be remiss if I didn't comment on my travels this past black Friday ( previously referred to as Green Friday, for obvious reasons.) As many of you know, this is a day of great fun for me, as I always enjoy the experience, the camaraderie of bargain hunters ( unless two of them are going for the same item, then it can be bloody, which is even more fun for the onlookers), and the feeling of getting a good bargain on something for which I have been watching the price, waiting for it to drop.


My first stop was my favorite store, Walmart. I got there at 7, with all the "hot" items long gone (as well as the insane crowds. I find the best time to shop is at 7. The first crush of dedicated shoppers are gone, and regular people are not out yet). Well, as I was roaming the store, as they move all the doorbusters all over the store, I saw one of the electronic items I wanted on a shelf of towels. ("Score!). Then I got on line. As I was standing there, I noticed someone standing at the front of the bag area. After the person at the register was taken care of, the cashier took this person ahead of me. She was buying some toys. After the purchased were rung up, she took a Benefits card out of her wallet and swiped it through.

Now, I do not profess to be an expert in the fine print of the welfare benefits system, but I am pretty sure that IT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PURCHASE OF TOYS!!!

This pretty much dovetails with what Soupeater was talking about earlier. The clear abuse of our aid system is what is doing this country in. And now they want to take over another aspect of our lives, when it is well known that the abuse of medicare is even more rampant that welfare.

Enough of that, then I went to the Palisades mall ( via the Nanuet mall, which was as busy as a regular day, sad.) I was on the elevator when a family entered. There was a man and woman, both very calm, each pushing a carriage, and three little children. One of the kids was carrying on and the wife good naturedly asked her husband " Having fun yet?"

I looked at them and said " enjoy them, my kids don't come with me anymore." Which was actually a bit bittersweet for me. I always enjoyed sharing the fun with the kids, but now they either have school that day, are away, or not interested.

I guess I will have to wait for them to be out of school and on their own, then I can get on line with them at 5 AM at Best Buy again.

By the Dawn's Early Light

Dick Gregory, a black comedian who spoofed the problems of black people a generation ago had a line regarding his bad luck which went something like this: "I decided to stage a sit-in but THEY INTEGRATED."

This morning, at a time when one cannot recognize his friend, I rose to join the annual pilgrimage to commercial Mecca and participate in the Black Friday events. The destination of my choice was the Best Buy store in Paramus. I had been considering the purchase of a computer which happened to be one of the items listed on the "doorbuster" flier that accompanied yesterday's local newspaper. The price was considerably lower than the already low price it had been selling for just a few days ago.

I opted not to try the Best Buy at the Palisades Mall, a gargantuan palace of retail commerce which on the slowest of days typically has a full parking lot and requires endless walking to reach a particular store. Especially on this day, with the multitude of Black Friday bargains to be had at many stores in the mall I judged the expected crowding to be more than a trip there was worth. The Paramus location is somewhat differently situated with the store entrance right off the parking lot and without other neighboring stores offering fantastic bargains.

I arrived a few minutes early for the 5AM opening and the line, while long, did not look at all daunting. There were some vagabonds among the crowd regaling the onlookers with a cacophony of drumbeats from portable drums. When the line began to move, they took off and we thought they were off to give some other hapless shoppers a dose of their entertainment, but they quickly returned to the line after stowing their tom toms in the trunk of their car.

The line began moving rapidly as (we thought) the first shoppers were led into the cavernous interior of the store. After we got about halfway, the line came to a jolting halt. Since we were around the corner from the entrance, we couldn't see what was holding up the line and chalked it up to a breather before the line began to move again. Only it didn't.

One of my fellow queuers sent his daughter to scout out the delay. She soon returned with the news that the police were arguing with the store personnel and that there were four police cars at the entrance. It turns out that the quaint city of Paramus has a law on its books that prohibits certain stores from opening for business before 7AM. So that was it. Fortunately for me and my acquisitive nature, I espied one of my nephews patiently waiting in line, considerably ahead of me. I told him what I was looking for and he said he would try to get it for me.

I came home and went back to sleep.

This and That

Today, I heard two news stories (headlines more accurately) with very little detail that I have been unable to verify on line and but since it comes from an impeccable source (WQXR) I have no reason to doubt their veracity.

The first story deals with a grant that enables food stamp recipients to purchase them online. I was shocked to hear that people who are eligible for food stamps have computers and internet connections. I thought these things cost money. My internet cable for instance costs about $50.00 a month. And my computer wasn't cheap either, at least not by food stamp standards. On the other hand, everyone in that class seems to have a giant screen HD television set or two and that's not considered unusual. I have two television sets which would be appropriate for museum exhibits. Even though I bought conversion boxes for each of them to enable them to receive digital signals (the government paid for some of their cost, but that is fodder for another blog) I haven't been able to receive any popular programming since the fateful day that analog signals were turned off. It's not the broadcasters' fault but that of my antenna which stands inaccessibly in my attic and is either not tuned correctly or is the wrong type - vhf instead of UHF.

Where was I?

Ah yes, the second story.

This was that the NY Board of Education will begin using student test scores in its evaluation of teacher's bids for tenure even though it is against state law. The union is understandably up in arms about this. The BOE seems to have backed down a bit to union outrage and said that observation of teachers in the classroom setting will also be used to determined eligibility.

I initially heard this news with glee because "If the unions are agin it, how can I not be for it?" The teachers unions in New York have been protecting incompetent and burned-out teachers for years to the detriment of the entire student body. In truth though, upon reflection, I can't really agree that the BOE is on to something. After all, why blame a teacher if the lunkheads he/she is trying to teach just don't get it. We know that their interest is anywhere but in the classroom or with the subjects they are being taught. If you don't want to learn, the best teachers in the world won't be able to teach you. Remember, we are talking here about New York City public school students. On the other hand, we do need metrics for competence, a concept the unions have been fighting since they established themselves. What better way to judge effectiveness than by test results.

I remain open minded on the question and invite feedback from my readers.

The Spirit Moves Me

I have friends and acquaintances who travel to Israel and return home full of wonder and delight and a sense of religious satisfaction, bringing back stories of charedi neighborhoods filled with talmidei chachomim in regulation garb learning torah day and night. The rest of the Israeli population is written off as not being worth even a footnote; on the contrary, they besmirch the pristine utopian image..

Obviously, my friends haven't spent even a minute amount of time exploring non-charedi neighborhoods.

I used to live in the Old City of Jerusalem which attracted, among others, every screwball from around the world but also anyone looking for a jolt of spirituality. What struck me was the interest in Judaism. Almost every conversation, on park benches, in cafes, or just among people walking the streets was about Torah or Halacha or the deeper philosophical questions of judaism. They weren't all observant but many jews were discussing the ins and outs of becoming more devoted to the minutiae of observance. The city of Jerusalem fairly overflows with spirituality.

Most of all, and unobserved and unremarked upon by my narrow minded friends is the teeming multitude of observant, working men and women who may not dress and conduct themselves like the stereotypical charedi jew that my friends consider to be the only acceptable model of true orthodoxy, but whose devotion to religious observance cannot be impugned. Throughout Jerusalem there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of synagogues minyanim and study halls regularly visited by these throngs considered by some to be "less thans." Admittedly,a large percentage of the population of this divine city is non-observant, publicly eating non-permitted foods, dressing inappropriately, desecrating the Sabbath or otherwise demonstrating a contempt for Torah.Still, it is unfair to lump them together with those who are perfectly acceptable just because they may lack the long beard, earlocks and black clothing preferred by the chasidish and yeshivish population.


On my latest trip to Jerusalem which entailed a great deal of shopping, I was struck by the ubiquitous availability of minyanim in busy commercial centers, shopping malls and offices, attended by ordinary working men and even women. This would probably shock and surprise my study group buddies. I could not get over the dedication of these throngs of people who attended the minyanim in synagogues whose only purpose was for these afternoon minyanim; people taking the time out of a busy workday to spend a few moments praying to their creator.

If I forget you Jerusalem, may my right hand fail.

SAVE ME FROM IDIOTS PLEASE

I apologize in advance, but I MUST rant. I just had a conversation with someone about a young man I know who is a little different, and needs a particular type of girl who will put up with his idiosyncrasies. So that person said, he needs a girl, maybe from that school in Monsey,_____. That happens to be the school that my daughter and nieces attend and have attended.

Knowing the gentleman in question, I was aware as to the mind set of the person I was talking to as to what she assumed was the quality of the girls from this school. I asked her how she had this information, and she admitted that she did not have it first hand, ( she lives in Brooklyn) and actually does not know ANY girls who attended that school, but it was what she had heard.

I then became extremely annoyed and informed this person that whatever negative information she has heard about the school is just wrong, and anyone who promulgated such unadulterated B.S. ( I don't think I abbreviated the word in the conversation.) is both wrong and evil. I felt compelled to inform her that it is one of the premier schools in Monsey, and has sterling girls and a top flight administration.

It is unbelievable to me the gossip and slander that people feel free to disseminate irrespective of the truth, and mindless to the damage that it can needlessly cause when it is completely untrue. They never stop to think that perhaps this sniping and bad-mouthing is nothing more than political jockeying from the different schools themselves. They never stop to think that what might have been true 20- 30 years ago might have changed. they never stop to think of the damage their mean spirited or worse, mindless, drivel can cause to perfectly fine girls from wonderful homes. Especially when the truth is the furthest thing from the stupidity they believe to be true.

I know the girls that go to this school. I know the parents that send their children to this school. I am familiar with the high academic level that the school is on, as well as the professionalism and caring of the principals. For anyone to say that this school is lower academically, or that the girls are not of the highest caliber is just wrong, and if they actually believe it then I suggest they remove their heads from the hole it is currently in to get some air.

Unfortunately, this is not a new problem, but you just can't fix stupid.

THE LEAF

A leaf came to visit me the other day. It just popped onto my windshield at a light, waved to me, and then went on its way.

Now as the good Doctor starts its second year in blogdom, I shall mix it up a bit. Some of the blogs I read will have the random poem thrown in. I guess this is to show the literary dexterity of the authors. So I will do a little one here on my friend the leaf.

THE LEAF

A leaf came by to visit today
just to say hello, not to stay

Off the tree, across a field
to briefly rest on my windshield

he didn't stay long , just a moment
until another gust came, and away he went

but while he was there my day was a little brighter
and when he left, a little dimmer

its nice to have a quick dash of color in my day
pop in, cheer me up, then on your way

so good luck to you, my little leaf
having served your duty to your tree
you are now done, and completely free

Rememeber to Dot your "i" s....

I needed to get a blood test recently, to check some of my levels. It took a bit of cajoling to get the prescription out of my doctor, who happens to be a friend of mine as well. he finally sent it and I was just waiting until after the holidays so my numbers would look better.

I needed to do it on a 12 hour fast, which is tough for me because I am rarely home the same time these labs are open, and I can't really do it early in the morning because I get home ( and eat) so late at night.

So I decided to take care of it on Friday, when I would try to get there on my way home. This by itself is tricky, as the day is short and the lab tends to be creepily slow.

So, I didn't eat any dinner Thursday night, went to Brooklyn for a meeting Friday morning, ( no coffee) worked and drove home ( still no coffee, when I do a fast, I really do a fast). Got home around 2:30 and went to the lab. When I got there, there was a line, and I had neither the time nor patience to wait, so I took the girls ( who were with me) to the library, and I figured I would try again on my way home.

Now the lab is on a main street, and it gets real busy Friday afternoons, but I felt I should really take care of it, so I went back to the lab, eve though I saw that the traffic between the lab and my way home was already backed up at 3:30.

I went inside. no line, just me. Great. I gave my prescription to the technician and had a seat stomach grumbling. I told it to wait another ten minutes.

About five minutes later she calls me over and tells me she can't do the test because the prescription isn't signed.

I love my doctor, but he is killing me.

Election thoughts ( only one post, relax)

Just a quick one on politics now that this election period is over, and I have been really good.

I am glad Mayor moron won only because the alternative would have been Dinkins redux, and in a time when we are having Carter redux, I really have no desire to go back to that time in our City's history as well. However, aside from the megalomaniac that is Mr. Bloomberg who flaunted HIS OWN rules and bought another term, the silent tax of 10 million parking tickets last year at the higher rates that he imposed is going to continue to drive out the middle class.

The only reason why the press is saying that the election is not a referendum on Obama is because the candidates he backed and stumped for lost. Had it gone the other way, every pundit would be saying he has a mandate. One analyst said that the republicans came out to vote against Obama, believe it.

Lets just hope the trend continues before we get into a mess that will take generations to extricate ourselves and recover from.

The Man in the Middle

A great theological scholar and leader of men once enunciated a universal truth. Not having heard it directly from him, I cannot know if he meant it as a guiding principle in life or if it was an offhand remark. He was, presumably, addressing an issue of either religious devotion or social behavior. This is what he said:

"Everyone thinks he's in the middle."

When I first heard it, it struck me as merely insightful, but on further reflection and after mulling it over a while, I came to regard it as one of the truest, most universally applicable principles ever uttered. It covers a world of disciplines; mental health, criminality, religiosity, humanity, social interaction to name but a few.

No two people think exactly alike so society has, over the years, had to define acceptable and unacceptable in human interactions. What divides "normal" from really "crazy?"

People have an endless capacity for rationalizing their actions. A petty thief can point to Bernie Madoff as a real thief and to honest people as preachers' sons. A whirling dervish in the sands of Sudan can look at Al Qaida or the Ikwan as really extreme and at the Lebanese as functinoally infidels. The term "lunatic fringe" has been applied to organizations of which I am or have been a member but I can point to many other groups that are way more lunatic than mine. The list goes on. Possibly, Bernie Madoff can point to others in history that caused, qualitatively, more damage than he did.

Standards of morality, standards of honesty, standards of piety, standards of ethics, all cover a very broad range. Society has developed yardsticks for truly extreme behavior and most people will subscribe to this benchmark. But the guy out on the edge doesn't really think he's there. He's the man in the middle.

I'm constantly reminded that people see themselves in a mirror of their own making. You wouldn't recognize the person I think I am or the person you think you are if you ever met up with him/her.

The extreme person you see when you meet me is only a figment of your distorted imagination. The same one that imagines yourself as the soul of moderation.

We're all in the middle.

Happy Birthday & Thank You Readers

Only three more days and the Good Doctor will be a year old. Its amazing how time flies and how things can change so quickly in the course of a year. ( geese come, geese leave, geese return, etc.) So as I take a moment and reflect on the past year ( ..... Ok, done.) Soupeater and I would just like to thank all of you who have followed, commented, praised, criticized, challenged and made this part year fun and exciting.

Keep reading and commenting, for if we write and no one reads it, does it make a sound in the blogsphere?

Pyotr Ilyich You've Made it Big

Last night in the 8PM (EDT) hour, 3 of the 6 classical music stations I listen to, one in Minnesota, one in New York and one in Los Angeles were playing works by Tchaikovsky. It wasn't his birthday nor was it his death day and I couldn't find any explanation for the phenomenon. I don't believe in coincidences.

I wish I thought of it....

I heard a truly great expression in court this week. I was talking to a legal aid attorney and he mentioned that he doesn't care for a particular landlord attorney. He gave me an example of a line that the attorney had used on him which indicated the landlord attorney's callousness. The line was,

"You could give aspirin a headache"

Brilliant. I will have to use it. However, to make the legal aid attorney feel a little better, I told him it could have been worse, he could have said

"You could give EXCEDRIN a headache!"

Out, Out, darned snowflake

As the political season heats up, I feel compelled to at least weigh in or certain issues of the day. I will endeavor to be short and entertaining, and promise to get back to the geese and other issues after November.

Last night I heard two very interesting pieces on the news. The first is that there is a new law in New Jersey, courtesy of that failed governor, that it is now illegal to drive with snow on your car. The blurb on the news did not indicate how much snow shall constitute a violation, and knowing the past history about giving New Jersey cops discretion ( pulling over people because they are black) i shudder to think of how this will play out. I can see it now, 50 cars lined up just past the state line on the Palisades Parkway with a bit of snow caught in the groove where the wipers sit. Or hour long backups on the new Jersey bound bridges and tunnels because Fort Lee or Hoboken have to close their budget, and they are pulling over everyone coming over the bridge or out of the tunnel.

Way to go Corzine, keep it up, and you won't be able to get elected to a school board.


The second item is an interview that is being promoted on WCBS with some Israeli author who is touting the wonderful advantages of the Israeli health care system. Now anyone who has ever had to deal with the Israeli health care system knows what an absolute disaster it is. I am convinced that if airfare was around $300 instead of $1,000, every kid in Israel with even the sniffles would come home to be treated.

However, in the days King Obama, I am not surprised that a "news" outlet with a clear liberal bent in its language and reporting like WCBS is pushing this. I am just surprised that WINS hasn't gotten a hold of this yet.

If you value your liberties folks, speak up now or all will be lost.

Gas, Wind, and then, Solid Waste

Here's a copy of a letter I just sent to our State Senator, Thomas P. Morahan.

The Hon. Senator Thomas Morahan
Room 606 Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York 12247

Dear Senator Morahan

I just received my monthly invoice from Orange and Rockland utilities which included a small separately printed notice that the law requires electricity suppliers to inform their customers of the sources of their electricity (solid waste, wind, gas, etc) and the amount of their emissions relative to others in the state.

How can the Senate and the Assembly allow such wasteful and expensive nonsense to prevail as established law?

It costs money to print and to transport these notices, and it costs money to gather the required information. And who do you think is going to pay for all this? The utilities are a business and whatever it costs them to operate will be included in the price to their customers.

And for what purpose? I buy the cheapest electricity I can find, to provide light and comfort for myself and my family and I couldn't care less if the electricity comes from the pristine rays of the sun or from the methane produced by the flatulence of an elephant in the zoo. I am sure about 99% of electricity purchasers in this state feel the same.

Alfred Would Turn Over in his Grave

I guess the good doctor preempted me in commenting on the Nobel committee's latest eye poke to reason and sanity. Here is my take.

At least till now, the committee could only be held up to allegations of cynicism and political meddling, but now they must be held up to public ridicule.

Peace Prize or Booby Prize?

"Scrap the Nobel Peace Prize," foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox wrote in The Times of London. "It's an embarrassment and even an impediment to peace. President Obama, in letting the committee award it to him, has made himself look vain, a fool and dangerously lost in his own mystique."

The above quote pretty much sums it up, folks. I will leave it at that for now.

Please try not to kill the patient

I know that I have been quite remiss in writing lately, but I have been busy with the Holidays ( as surmised at by Soupeater) and have not really had much to rant about ( prescient once again, Soupy!)

Until recently.

As many of you know, I am an EMT who is part of a volunteer EMS organization.

I was in Court last Thursday. As I was meandering the halls trying to track down other lawyers to finish my cases, I saw an older woman being escorted out of a courtroom by an officer and assisted in sitting down outside of the room. She appeared to be having some medical issue that involved the use of an inhaler. I asked the officer if he had called the EMTs and he informed me that everything was under control and I should step away.

So I did, but I didn't go far. I had no equipment on me, and without going into detail, I didn't think it was appropriate at that point for me to step in. Eventually, the officers who are purportedly EMTs did show up, and leisurely went about assessing the patient. I again offered my services to help, but was once again rebuffed. The pace that they were working is not one that I would approve of, and I felt a long time passed from when they got there until they actually put oxygen on the patient, but it was not my scene.

However, it got me thinking.

A few years ago I was asked what the purpose is for the volunteer EMS organization that I am a part of if there is a "perfectly good" EMS system in place. So the quick answer is no one does it the same way as our organization, which uses embedded members of the community. But more importantly, I can prove my point be an example. A call comes out 530 in the morning for difficulty breathing, and within 10 minutes you have three EMTs, two medics and an ambulance, as well as a breathing treatment along with the oxygen already initiated. That's the difference. A level of caring and zeal not seen in the EMS services or by other in house EMTs.

Hopefully, no one should need it, but it is nice to know that the organization is there.

A Whale of a Story

Things have been kind of dull here in blogland. Maybe everyone has just run out of things to say and write about and maybe they are busy with the holidays and back to school. Either way, I haven't seen any new posts in the last many days and feel that I have to get things off first base.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything to write about either.

Congress is muddling its way through the Health Care reform mess and it could become quite interesting, like a horse race where the odds keep changing before the run.

The stock market isn't doing anything unless a .4% price change is considered significant. The news media seem to treat these miniscule moves as something to comment on, but as far as I am concerned, it is all "no change."

I did hear a story about a supposed medical advance and have been trying to decide whether this blog is a proper venue for the discussion I have in mind regarding the event but have mainly decided to shelve it for the time being.

Regarding our president, I won't look at pictures of him nor listen to any of his speeches or even his sound bites. I've never felt that way about any other president no matter how much I detested him. After years of climbing out of the currency of New Deal liberalism, it is disheartening to see us fall back into that trap. I am getting older and don't want the dream of a prosperous, free America to slip from my grasp. It will be too long until the trend reverses itself.

To end this post with some relevance to the title, here is a commentary on Jonah and whale, appropriate for this season. The scripture states that a fish swallowed him but it is popularly believed to be a whale. The commentaries point out that it took him 3 days to pray for salvation because things were roomy inside the male fish that swallowed him. So, after 2 days and some time, the original fish, transferred him to a pregnant female fish and things got a bit cramped so he started praying. The only fish I know of that carries live offspring is a whale. It also survives on oxygen from the air.

Doctor, It really hurts

Now that Max Baucus has revealed his conception of what health care reform would look like, I wrote to my representatives in congress detailing my objections to a massive reform effort. In the cause of brevity I did not elaborate on the need to fix certain gross anomalies in the current health care system on a gradual piece by piece basis, but I think that should be the ultimate approach and goal of the whole excercise.

Because it is almost impossible to gain their attention for even a few nano seconds, I tried to keep it short but my best efforts still came up with a one page letter. My wife advised me that the best way to write is to put the word "for" or "against" in big letters at the beginning and end of the communication which is all that matters. Good advice. I guess they have heard all the arguments, reasoned or not and don't have time to rehash exactly why each individual is either for or against a proposal.

So in order to enlighten at least the loyal readers of this blog, I offer my arguments.

I am concerned about the mandatory aspects of the proposed health care reform initiative. To be forced to purchase something or to join an organization is abhorrent to the principles of a free democracy and individual rights.

I am further concerned by the intractability of the public option debate. If there is a public option, it will cost too much and give government too much control over healthcare choices. If we don't have a public option, the insurance companies will reap a vast windfall at the public's expense. It also does not make sense to increase the costs of the healthcare industries by taxing them. This will only shift the costs right back to the consumer. It’s like everyone taking in everyone else’s laundry.

It is not the government's role to insure everyone who chooses not to spend the money on health insurance. For over two hundred years Americans have had the right to choose to assume risk.

In view of the above, I think it would be best if the entire initiative would be defeated.

Wildlife II

My driveway seems to be a haven for all hungry beasts in my neighborhood. I am thinking of charging admission " See the animals! Watch them in their natural habitat! (my garbage cans), much closer than Great Adventure! Take one home as a pet! (please)."

Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, I responded to pick up the ambulance for a call at 3 AM. I went out to my car and saw that the garbage can was once again on its side, and there was an animal having a late night snack. Now the can was in front of my car, and a little off to the side.

Thinking it was one of the usual suspects (the cats and raccoons that frequent Chez Greun) I continued towards it, figuring I would just chase the varmint away.


Until I saw the wispy white tail.

Sticking up.

Now, I had to make a quick decision on what to do. I had to get to my car, and I figured I could still do so, but the usual escape route of this critter is to cross the driveway into the back yard. If I were to blast past him, he might freak and decide on a little eau de ewwww. So I slowly went wide around the can, hoping he would sense company and leave, which is what they usually do. However, this little skunk decided to come out and investigate.

With his tail really straight up.

This is generally perceived as not a good sign for one who wants to keep his friends and family, so I decided that a little walk around the back of the house would probably be the prudent choice of action. As I came around the second time, the critter must have decided that having his meal disturbed a second time was enough, and he politely chose to leave.

With his tail down, thank goodness.

I arrived a few minutes later at the call, and all was forgiven for the short delay, since the smell inside the ambulance would have been enough to send us all to the hospital had I kicked the can.

So that was all well and good until the other morning. I heard rustling outside my window, which usually indicates a feast is in progress, but this was early in the morn, when Chez Greun is usually cosed for the day. I didn't think much of it until around 7:30 when Lovey informed me that something was still banging around. I looked out my window, which overlooks the driveway, and into 3 of the 4 cans which don't have lids, and didn't see anything. The fourth can had the lid on it, but it wasn't moving.

Lovey decided to investigate and look in all the cans from ground level. Since I didn't think there was anything to see, I wasn't paying much attention until she shrieked. She had looked through the hole in the top of the can that one of our previous customers had made, and seen a little raccoon staring up at her. Then, after my manhood was called into question, I was forced to come outside and see this animal for myself. I asked all the appropriate agencies to please come and take this interloper away, and get rid of it, but they all refused, so I had to let it go myself.

I know Lovey is a good cook, but this constant invasion is getting ridiculous.

End of Summer ll (click here)

I was off today so, needing to do some banking business, I went to a local branch, not my usual one. Upon entering the premises, I immediately realized that this place was understaffed. It is a highway branch and was currently manned by two tellers who had to take care of a line of 4 people and about 6 cars. I waited patiently (the cars waited even more patiently - I didn't hear any horns blowing) and while waiting, a young lady got on line behind me. She was about the age of my middle child and we got to chatting about how the bank branch we were in was going to handle the extra traffic from the other local branch which B of A decided to close.

When I exited the building, I noticed a baby blue convertible BMW z4 with the top down, bathed in brilliant sunlight, parked next to my car. I examined the roadster, noticing the fine leatherwork and the manual shift. As I was doing so, the woman who had been in line behind me, came out of the bank and said to me, "My birthday present! But it's probably the last one I'll get for the next fifty years." She got in her car and drove off, as I wistfully watched her drive away with the last days of summer.

As Sand Through an Hourglass...

There truly is a generation gap. At least among my siblings and their children. let me explain.

I was over at the Carwash's and we got into an impromptu game of charades along with my brother ( not the lawyer) and his wife. So we were running out of topics, and since we all grew up with each other, we were guessing before the person even started, so we needed to shake it up a bit.

Now, when I was younger, the movie that became real popular with my siblings was The Princess Bride ( inconceivable, really.) my sisters knew the movie so well it was to the point that we could watch the movie with the sound off, and still have all the dialogue.

For some reason, among our children, the movie that the girls in particular seem to have gotten into is Newsies. The kids seem to be in a competition as to who can see it the most, and the dialogue gets quoted constantly. I happen to feel that I should know what my kids are into, so I have seen it as well (I should note that at one point it would have been impossible not to see it, as it was playing on the DVD or computer just about every night.)

Figuring that my siblings are as involved as I am, I started to act out the movie, from the first scene on. Blank stares. I did a few more scenes. More blank stares.

Finally, after flopping over the ottoman for the third time, and realizing at my advanced age that I couldn't do it much longer, I told them what it was. Their response? Oh, we haven't seen the movie!

I was shocked that something so integral to their kids was not in their interest at all. I was also a little winded.

So I got to thinking, this isn't really that different than when we were kids and soooo into things, and our parents were completely not interested ( for instance, The Princess Bride). Just like we were not interested then in things our parents were into, that we have a greater appreciation for today.

What that is, offhand, I can't think of anything, but I am sure there are some things.

And the Gap widens... ( perhaps the name of a soap opera when we are really old??)

Pictures

We recently hosted a family barbecue. As I usually do, I took out my digital camera and started shooting at whatever moved or looked like an interesting grouping. The kids run around so much, most of my pictures are puzzlingly vapid. Especially in digital photography, there is a delay between when you depress the shutter and when the image is impressed on the electronic sensors so that I get many shots that come out like the drawing of cows eating grass, where the grass is already eaten and the cows have left.

Roll back the scene about 80 years or so. I have a large shoebox filled with photographs taken by my father from the late twenties through the seventies. The pictures taken after 1965 don't interest me too much because I have my own pictures of the same events and because I have living memories of those depicted in the photos, and, although interesting in their own right (see how young we were) they don't convey the same sense of continuity I get from the pictures of people I never knew.

There are pictures of my dead cousins dancing at some celebration or other, pictures of my aunts' weddings, random pictures of dinners and hikes and groupings of people who were related to me before I was born but didn't manage to be contemporary with me, and also pictures of young people whom I did manage to meet when they were older. I think about all of them, these personalities flitting in and out of my consciousness, as I go through the piles of photos. I think, here are people, like me, with likes and dislikes loves and hates hopes and disappointments triumphs and failures. They are mostly, if not all, gone now and we have taken their place. I long for the opportunity to interact with them.

Back to the twenty-first century. I sent my children a random shot of four of my adult children at the above mentioned barbecue; one is asleep in a chair, the other three are busily engaged in eating a corn or a hot dog concentrating on the matter in hand and oblivious to each other, sort of like Hopper's "Soir Bleu." I asked them what they think one of our descendants would think when coming across this picture in 50 years.

Here are some of their answers;

"why would anyone have saved THIS picture?"
"why would anyone have taken this picture?"
"what's Dr. Brown soda?"

I guess they don't think like me.

Happy Birthday

I had birthday this week. ( I know, A birthday, its a German thing, let it go). Lovey really gets into birthdays and thinks it is funny to tell everyone she sees that it is my birthday. So we were in an old age home visiting some relatives and she announced to everyone that it was my birthday (I only think about a third of the people heard it, though.) One man standing there perks up and says " hey, its my wife's birthday too!" so I go over to the wife and say " Happy Birthday" and she responds " Yes, my birthday is August 28th".

I felt that at this point it was just best to smile all around.

Travels in America

Any place that has a population density of less than 6 people per square mile is considered by the US Census to be uninhabited. I don't know if this is an average figure over a large region or if this applies to every square mile in the country. By the latter standard, I have been traveling in a largely uninhabited area. Every mile or two one does spot a farmhouse and some outbuildings upon a knoll or somewhere behind a stand of tall corn.

I have been driving hundreds of miles in western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota for the past few days and the word "uninhabited" keeps popping into my consciousness. Not that the land is desolate. On the contrary, it is miles and miles of verdant, rich, productive cropland giving proof to human intervention on a grand scale. Some of the towns along my route are little more than trailer parks (figuratively, the houses are all real and permanent) while others have lovely tree lined and canopied streets in a region not distinguished by trees of any sort.

Minnesota is known by its self-dubbed nickname as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes." There are a lot of lakes here but eastern South Dakota, as I have often noticed while flying across it, is riddled with one lake after the other, large and small. At ground level these lakes appear to be large holes filled with water with no accessible shoreline other than thick healthy bullrushes leading to the water's edge. I am told they are filled with fish and I even saw some water birds frolicking in their dark blue waters. Some are quite deep. But on the whole these lakes are, for the most part, featureless. Many are just round without coves and most are surrounded by flat land making the distinction between water and land a matter of only color change. The usual pattern of gently sloping wooded hills forming a bowl containing the water does not hold here.

Today, I drove more than 400 miles fronted on both sides as far as the eye can see by waves of light and dark green soybean leaves rippling in the wind, seas of brownish-yellow tasseled corn carpeting the land, golden swaths of harvested wheat and green lawns of newly mown hay fields. Depending upon the level of the fields relative to the roadway the views change, sometimes showing an incredible symmetry of rows and sometimes only showing an unbreakable surface of one color or another. All this accompanied by the redolence of livestock and other farm odors which is even more pronounced when traversing the region in an open convertible.

Of all the millions, possibly billions, of ears of corn I passed today, the one I bought for dinner this evening was the worst I have ever tasted.

Go figure.

Doctor, here's where it really hurts!

Issues in the health care debate boil down to the following:

If the puchase of health care insurance becomes mandatory, and there is no public option, the industry will acquire a stranglehold on the health care system, It will furthermore be greatly enriched by 47 million people forced to buy their products at rates that can be arbitrarily set. There is no possible way that such a scenario will not be more monopolistic than the wildest imaginings of the muckrakers of the early 20th century. Our lawmakers will be handing the health insurance industry a munificent windfall without receiving much in return.

If there is a public option it may serve as competition to the industry but with the possibility of a large increase in costs to the government and the public. Also at the cost of bureaucratically administered health care rationing. The fact that the Senate even considered a "death panel" is proof of how much personal liberty health care reform will eliminate. And this will only be the first step on the slippery slope to dictatorship.

If congress tries to limit the cost of health care for the masses by increasing the co-payment and deductible burden on a mandatory minimum health policy holder then the poor will have to shoulder close to half their medical costs plus the insurance premium. This is bad enough for those who are sick, but it is vastly more unfair for those who don't get sick who will be forced to buy a piece of junk that they don't need..If the purpose of this reform is to help the poor then how does this help them? Heads I win, tales you lose.


The most evil part of this plan is the mandatory clause. Administration spokespeople are lauding the health insurance industry for their agreement to insure those with preexisting conditions. Obviously if insurance purchase is mandatory then even the sick will have to buy it and if private insurance providers don't agree to insure the already sick it would leave the government no choice but to have a public option.

Never in this country's glorious history has one been forced to purchase anything. I have nightmares of shouting guards and barking dogs herding innocent people into boxcars.

The best solution to this fake crisis is to do nothing. The system isn't perfect, but it works. Tweak it a bit if you must but use gradualism. Write your congressman and senators and tell them that they should vote against any and all the bills for massive health care reform.

The levelers in Washington have taken control and I fear for our inalienable rights.

BIAS!

I am trying to recall a special catastrophic historical event which, in hindsight, was the primary cause for the assumption of absolute power by a dictator. The assassination of Kirov? The bombing of Cambodia? No matter. There aren't too many cases of homegrown dictators in 20th century history and before that, monarchy and absolute power were the norm. I have previously blogged about crises becoming the excuse for power grabs but what follows is a description of a manufactured crisis and we do have to be careful that once the "crisis" becomes fixed in the public's mind, it will be hard to counteract.

The news media needs to exaggerate and hype everything out of proportion in order to sell its product. I once called the Wall Street Journal when they used to sponsor a few minute recap of the financial news on WQXR regarding a program headlined by, "Oil prices soar!" when the price of petroleum went up a few cents. I pointed out the apparent contradiction between the headline and the story and was told that after all, they needed to attract attention.

So when they characterize the recent spate of spiteful town hall meeting rhetoric as organized mob activity and nazi-like behavior it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I think this time it's a product of their collective socialist bias.

Let us examine the facts. Yes, booing and jeering isn't very civil or mannered behavior but mob activity is more sinister, employing clubs, brass knuckles, knives and a considerable amount of pushing and shoving. The people, like the media, just crave a bit of attention.

What is really annoying the politicians and their news media supporters is that the people are angry with, and distrustful of, their elected representatives and that they see the threat the Obama administration poses to individual freedoms and rights. The public feel entitled to voice their disapproval to their elected representatives. For years, politicians have been using the so called "Town Hall Meeting" construct to conduct a one-way, staged, indoctrination of the citizens who misguidedly attended these affairs under the impression that they would be able to influence or at least have a meaningful exchange of ideas with their elected representatives.

Well, no longer. Congressmen and Senators are consequently shocked that they can't get away with it this time.

I have listened to some of the public's remarks at these town hall meetings and they seem to me to be calm and reasoned arguments, albeit oppositional and delivered emotionally and feelingly. Politicians don't like to hear from their constituents unless they represent a substantial number of voters or control a lot of campaign money.

I just read a letter in USA today which presents the following argument against the claim that health care reform protesters are the storm troopers of organized right wing opposition. There are two pictures, one showing the conservative opposition holding long winded hand written signs and the other showing supporters displaying professionally designed and printed posters. The letter writer asks: Which is more likely to be the "organized" group and which the true grass roots protest.

Hussein (III), the honeymoon is over.

Its Hard to Soar Like an Eagle......

I had the misfortune of actually mentioning to the pest who was on the highway with me that I posted about him. He has taken the term pest to a completely new level. Let me tell you about this person. He works in my office, and thinks he is the boss. This means that he really doesn't listen to anyone, and wants everyone to listen to him, including the scintillating story of how he burnt his feet. ( I have been trying to avoid the details of this riveting story, but I think that he will corner me and tell me anyhow.)

Anyhow he has become completely hung up about this, and the idea that anyone would blog in the first place. He keeps coming in to my office to give he his cumulative knowledge about the world in general (all 22 years of his experiences) and his opinion on blogging specifically. I think it is probably jealousy since English and writing is occasionally a second language to him.

Now you can imagine what it is like to deal with someone like this on an every day basis. Root canal looks more and more appealing each day (" I have to go out for a few hours and have my head drilled, to take away the hammering in my brain from you"). Unfortunately, most people have similar issues in the work place. Sometimes it can be an annoying co-worker, in worst case scenarios it can be a supervisor or even the head person in the office. There really is not much that can be done about it except grin and bear it.

And blog about them.

The Throne, or the power behind it?

We were coming back from visiting day in the mountains and a pest who works in my office was driving behind me. He noticed that I was a passenger and Lovey was driving. He (of course) felt compelled to question the hierarchy at my house, since, in his silly little single mind, the MAN has to drive, or he isn't a man.

Without getting into his psyche too much, or telling him that it is usually more a burden then a joy to have to drive all the time, I still felt compelled to inform this misguided youth that the fact that I was not driving had nothing to do with my lack of standing in the house, ( actually, a case could be made that I insisted that I do not drive, so I am clearly in control, but to say such a thing in a blog that may or may not be read by a significant other is dangerous, so I will just posit it as a hypothetical) and more to do with my not sleeping the night before. ( I could also add the fair division of labor in the household, but that could cause more problems than the previous statement, so I will leave it as another hypothetical).

Actually, on a quick tangent, I know of certain households where the distaff side does all or most of the driving, sometimes because the male does not drive, and sometimes because it is not worth taking a stand with a female who insists. But I indeed digress.

Staying on the division of labor theme, as well as who is ultimately in charge of the house, leads to an interesting episode at Chez Greunkern that might just indicate how the residents see things. At the table over the weekend, there was a discussion as to who would do the dishes. Lovey decided that I should do them, and expressed her opinion accordingly. Not wishing to gainsay her, I looked to one of the children (house servants?) and told him that he should do the dishes.

Not missing a beat, he immediately started to say "But she told...." Then he caught himself. ( Smart boy)

Having not been born yesterday, I knew the end of the statement. I also was not going to let it go. So a quick discussion ensued that I am not part of the sibling pack, where that line will get you out of a job, and I indeed do have the right to delegate any job I choose, including those assigned to me by Lovey. However, it did show me exactly where the children think the true power in the house lies.

I have to go now and hide all my pants.

Brooklyn moves Upstate

What is it with lack of courtesy and shopping carts? Do people have a genetic disposition to become obnoxious and rude as soon as they touch one? is it like kryptonite to good manners? I wonder.


I was recently in a shopping center in Monsey. We had sent off Big Sister and Lovey and me were alone for a day. ( More like 16 hours, but we take what we can get.) So we did what we always do on an off day, shop.


In this strip mall there is a lane for driving in front of the stores, and then double rows for parking. I am on the sidewalk in front of the stores and I see this woman loading her van. As she finishes, she pushes the cart in the vague direction of the sidewalk while she is still at the back of her minivan. The cart goes about 10 feet and stops on a rut in the road.



In the middle of the road.



The woman looks at the cart, and gets into her car.



I just stood there, amazed.

Square and level

I can't get over the liberals' naked power hunger. I felt it strongly in 1993 when the Clintons were hatching their nefarious health care reform proposals and feel it again as the same issue is being debated. This time it may be worse.

I recently heard a radio program which featured, as a guest, a Professor Gruber of MIT commenting on a new proposal by some in either congress or the administration ( I'm not sure which ) to tax employer provided health insurance as income to those who have superior health care plans. The proposal singles out plans where everything is completely covered, sort of a Cadillac of health insurance plans.

In the course of his comments, Dr. Gruber opined that surely excessive health care coverage should be taxed because americans are getting too much health care and also because the third party payment system encourages a lack of financial responsibility (presumably to other citizens) by not involving the receiver of health care in the decision to use what health care is available. He felt that people should have to think twice or more before availaing themselves of a doctor or hospital. In short, and the moderator caught him out on this but he sidestepped the question, it seems he was for rationing of health care. Or maybe he was a leveller and felt that everyone should suffer equally.

I wondered why, if he was advocating that everyone should have to weigh when and whether to see a doctor, he was championing health care reform in the first place. From what I have heard, it is just the necessity for the 46 million un or underinsured to have to make such decisions which is the reason healthcare cries out for reform.

You would think a professor from MIT would be able to discern such a tautology.

Many years ago, before most of you were born, there was a radio program called "The Shadow," which featured a debonair man-about-town who, while in the East, had learned the secret to the power to "cloud men's minds."

I think power hunger does the same thing.

And when they came for me...

I can be silent no longer.

As much as that statement may seems a little strange, considering I do a fair amount of pontificating and ranting herein, I am referring specifically to our esteemed commander in chief, who has truly shown himself to be the First Jackass.

Forget what I read in a magazine that-shall-not be named, that his AG is thinking of prosecuting the Bush Administration for "excessive torture tactics", which is by itself a most dangerous precedent for any President to set, in that it would severely compromise the ability of all future presidents to effectively do their job, if they knew that as soon as their party was out of power, all their staffers and perhaps the president as well would be subject to criminal charges by a partisan which hunt.

And let us further put aside the Socialist leading to Communist plans of this administration with regards to health care. Nationalization of health care has never worked for any other country, so why shouldn't we ram it through Congress here? What really ticks me off is the statement of TFJ that he won't sign it if it will increase the deficit. How absolutely disingenuous. I assume taxing the hell out of the remaining people in this country who still have jobs and businesses doesn't count. But when they lose their jobs and businesses, and the government has to pay with unemployment benefits, stimulus money, and lost tax revenues, how does that not increase the budget? Beats me. But then again, I am not as smart as the genius we have in the White House, but I digress.

Well, with all that being put aside, as well as all the other issues, the part that I cannot get past today is the most powerful man in the world has shown the entire world just how absolutely petty and stupid he is, to make a comment on a local matter concerning one arrest, without having all the facts, and in the process demeaning and insulting the people who are charged with protecting us, the police. ( Another post on the silliness of the entire issue later.)

Now those of you who know me know that I am not a big fan of police in general, and I sincerely believe that they have a tendency to abuse their power, but nevertheless, you would think that a president would not get involved in something so silly.

Obviously, the overriding agenda of TFJ is to foster racial hatred in this country, something that the country itself showed it is trying to move beyond by electing him. Not for him. He has continued his agenda to completely destabilize this country, financially, racially, economically, and militarily.

How long before the left wing press realizes that they cannot cover for him anymore?

Are the Redwoods Superannuated?

I recently heard a piece on the BBC's Newshour which confirms the newsmedias' insidious biases. It was a story on a group of scientists mapping all the trees in a sequoia forest where the trees, some of which are over 3000 years old are dying prematurely.

First of all, I don't understand why they think that if the trees in this forest have started dying during the past 50 years it signals premature death. If the trees are indeed 3000 years old, what makes scientists think that this is premature death. Maybe they are dying of Sequoia old age. OK, so maybe there are some older trees, but as you see in human life, some people die in their late 80's and no one considers that premature even though there are plenty of ambulant, robust people in their high nineties living alone and doing all the things people in their 50's do and maybe not even more slowly. I personally know, and know of, many people like that.

But back to my point on bias. The lead up to the piece, by the announcer, went something like this..... "Scientists are mapping a forest of ancient trees which are dying prematurely due to climate change."

I thought to myself that it seems that scientific research is now directed by political agendas rather than by a desire for truth. That would have been a blog post by itself (and it may become one - a pathologist acqaintance of mine insists that all science today has a definite agenda [religious, not political in his case]).

But upon listening to the article, and I listened very carefully, nowhere was there even a hooded reference to climate change. The scientists were only describing their tribulations in camping out and doing the work and what it will mean when it is finished and that its significance will only be noted 25 to 100 years in the future.

At the risk of becoming like Cicero I must reiterate that environmentalism is the single greatest threat, past or present, to American freedom, liberty, capitalism and democracy.

We're in second, and MOVING UP!!

I don't believe that competition among family is right or necessarily healthy. I think that you should love your family without limitation, and should always be happy for all their successes.

However,


We here at the Soup are happy to announce that we have passed a secret blog of a family member in hits. This could be because we actually post from time to time, and the other blog has been curiously silent ( a shame) , or it could be that we have two different contributors, or it could be that the people running the blog are just going back to the page again and again to pump up the numbers. ( vehement denial)

Nevertheless, we are thrilled that we have managed to achieve this result, considering our counter went up later, and started at a lower number. Now we are hot on the trail of another one, and only have about 3,500 hits to make up.

Stay tuned, and keep checking back for updates.

many, many times.

Where are America's guts?

The world as we know it has gone nuts, or we are truly heading for an apocalypse. I saw this article on the Bloomberg website. The Chinese are suing U.S. companies for patent infringement! This completely boggles my mind.

For years and years, the Chinese have been illegally knocking off our products, and we have been completely powerless to stop it. I guess now with the new policy of the United States of apologizing for everything to everyone, the Chinese feel emboldened enough to have the audacity to come to our country, use our courts to try and enforce our laws to their benefit.

Personally, I think the trial should follow along these lines.

Yes China, you are correct, you finally had an original thought, and you should be protected. We will award you damages, but first, we are going to calculate the counterclaim of all the American companies that you have ripped off for all this time.

Then we can go back to the tried but true MaterCard commercial formula.

Award to China: $4.6 Million

Award to American Companies: $7.3 Trillion

Finally giving China a taste of their own medicine: Priceless.

Sahara Obama

Fresh from his triumphs in Italy where he and 7 other national leaders laid out their demands to G-d insisting that they would not accept a global temperature rise above 2° (C or F? - not sure) he has gone on to visit his native continent with a stop in Ghana. Ghana is a democracy on the shores of the Atlantic with a history of being a gathering point for slaves going to the new world and is the Africans' Auschwitz, so to speak. They talk about them being chained, naked, in dungeons beneath the forts guarding the coastline. This is billed as being the white man's persecution of the black man but they don't mention that the slaves were taken captives and forced into slavery by African slave traders who offered them for sale. Sort of like the drug trade. The producing countries blame the consuming countries for creating the demand.

Obama is immensely popular in Africa (local boy makes good) but I heard a pro African analyst questioning the honesty of Obama's campaign promises in that his first priority as President of the United States of America should have been the succor of Africa, and it wasn't. But lest you think he is blaming the continent's golden boy, think again. This analyst had the effrontery to suggest that it wasn't Obama's fault since he is getting bad advice from his advisers. We all know who his closest advisers are, according to Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former mentor, it is "them jews."

This does not bode well for Jewish - Black relations, which have never been easy. To some extent the jews will be the scapegoats for Obama's inability to deliver on some of his more radical promises. In the end, Obama himself is going to be torn between loyalty to this country and loyalty to his masters in Africa and the muslim world. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Now that the stimulus money is beginning to come into the economy the sheer stupidity of the Democratic congress in drafting the original bill is coming to the fore. Although billions are being released, it has become abundantly clear that much of it is going to social services where there is no multiplier effect and although the money is being introduced into the economy it is like giving food to someone with dysentery; it doesn't do any good. Social services, health research and the like, although very commendable and legitimately in need of funding, cannot grow the economy and any extra funding for this purpose has no business in the stimulus package. Funding for these things don't affect the economy in any meaningful way. and if they were to be cut or kept at current levels nothing would change in the economy. The only effect the stimulus money will have in this sector is to fatten those feeding at the public trough.

What the economy desperately needs is a boost to the manufacturing economy which is about to get another whammy from the proposed control of carbon emissions, a bill for which has already been passed by the House. I think the stimulus is conceptually the right way to go in a near depression but it must target the right things. Infrastructure constrution and all capital projects, in addition to increasing employment also increases manufacturing and commodity purchases which further increases employment and brings some confidence to the entire nation.

Not that this concerns Obama much. He's too busy making friends among his father's countrymen.

BAGEL STORE REVIEW

I have heard it said that in order for an eating establishment to be successful, 2 of three elements must be met. Good Food, Good Price, Good Service. i agree with this and feel that if you hit 2 out of 3, you have a chance to be successful. 3 out of 3 is even better, but less than 2, forget it.

Which brings me to a new feature here at the good Doctor, restaurant ( if they can all be called that) reviews! ( You lucky lucky readers!)

So the establishment is question is the bagel store in Passaic. We have friends there, Lady G, (who has been mentioned before) and her husband, Someone ( more on his name later). Over the years, we try to meet on legal holidays for breakfast. Usually we would meet in Monsey, since that is where the bagel stores were. Recently, one opened in Passaic, and they couldn't really get away for long , so we agreed to meet there.

Now, I have been there before, but fortunately, I have a short memory for unpleasant events, so I didn't remember much about it. This time, however, I think I will remember.

We got on line with one person ahead of us. Keep in mind that it was a holiday weekend, and many people were off. Our friends ordered first. I was next up. Now, I usually go for a breakfast special, since those are relatively difficult to mess up. However, having has experience with these as well, they usually don't have the potatoes, which make the whole deal. Even better is a HOBO, which is less egg, ( 1 vs. 2) less potato, all on a bagel for less money.

So I was prepared to order the HOBO, but alas, it wasn't on the menu. So I was about to order the special when I saw the second guy behind the counter make up 2 breakfast specials, and i realized there were not a lot of potatoes left on the grill. I ordered it, for almost six dollars (much more than the Monsey price) and the man at the counter told me that I was the last one. ( since they were out of potatoes at 10 AM , apparently). Lovey ordered a wrap, that they were at least smart enough to prepare beforehand, so that we took right off the fridge shelf.

Well, I went to get the coffee that comes with it and my friend said I should probably wait, since speed is not a strong point in this place, and I would probably have to wait. I have also heard since from others that if they want to stop for a quick sandwich even in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, this place is NOT the store to go to. So I waited. And waited. And sat down with our friends, who's order was finally ready. And waited some more.

It was during this time that I realized my friend's real name was Someone, as in " Someone was supposed to fix the sink" and "Someone was supposed to deal with the camp."

Finally, I went to the counter and asked what had happened. Did they have to wait for the chicken to lay the egg? Had they sent someone out to hoe some potatoes? Was the grill in fact on?

Better.

I was told that he had told me that there were no more breakfast specials available. To which I replied in the negative, relating our conversation to him. he just lost the order in the 3 feet from the counter to the grill, apparently.

Now since I had to run to a funeral, I told him to forget it, and just refund the money I had paid for it, less the coffee I have finally poured. We worked it all out, and we left.

So here is the review. Its a holiday weekend, with lots of customers coming in, realize this and have more or better help. If you mess up something, at least comp the coffee. This eatery could seriously use some competition to hopefully whip it into shape.

Price, lousy ( higher than Monsey prices)
Service, even worse.
Food, I have no idea, since I didn't get it ( I tasted the wrap, it wasn't bad, though).

I would not recommend this place, unless you have an entire day for breakfast or a sandwich, aren't really hungry, or have something to eat in the car, just in case.