Tom Faranda's Folly

If you are new to this weblog and looking for information on my lymphoma...

Scroll down, and a bit below my picture you'll see "Categories". The only category is "My lymphoma and related medical stuff". If you click on that, only the lymphoma-related and a few other health-related postings will appear! My other ramblings, family stories, and mediocre jokes will be gone.

Then go to this January 8th posting, Tom Faranda's Folly: Four months of journaling  that gives links to 13 earlier posts. These posts will give you a good picture of my chemo treatment prior to the Sloan Kettering admission with the stem cell transplant. The 13 posts take a total of about 20 minutes to read. Of course, feel free to read the many other posts in the first four months, if you are so inclined.

Then start working chronologically forward from January 8th.

Only in The Big Apple; Batman and Superman arrested in Times Square

Complete with pictures

COPS ARREST TWO MEN DRESSED AS BATMAN AND SUPERMAN IN TIMES SQUARE - New York Post

"The Man of Steel didn't go down with just two officers, it took seven officers!" witness Ryan McCormick said. "He was putting up a good fight. Little kids were like, 'Mommy, it's Superman!' "

Another weapons system we don't need, can't afford, and that should have been cancelled years ago

The F-22. An "uncancellable" program. Too many contractors in 40 states.

I believe in national defense, not stupidity and waste.

High-Priced F-22 Fighter Has Major Shortcomings - washingtonpost.com

The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show.

The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings -- such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion -- challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.

While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.

Ankle sprains and bad ankles - how to fix

I know quite a lot about bad ankles. in my experience, once seriusly sprained they're weak. i still remember when I did my right one - stepped on the #8's foot at the back of a rugby scrum, and turned it over. About 35 years ago, and it still can bother me.

Anyway, here's an interesting article in the NY Times health section a few days ago. And, there's a three minute video.

How to Fix Bad Ankles - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

At the same time, in sports they’re the most commonly injured body part — each year approximately eight million people sprain an ankle. Millions of those will then go on to sprain that same ankle, or their other ankle, in the future. “The recurrence rate for ankle sprains is at least 30 percent,” McKeon says, “and depending on what numbers you use, it may be high as 80 percent.”

A growing body of research suggests that many of those second (and often third and fourth) sprains could be avoided with an easy course of treatment. Stand on one leg. Try not to wobble. Hold for a minute. Repeat.

This is the essence of balance training, a supremely low-tech but increasingly well-documented approach to dealing with unstable ankles. A number of studies published since last year have shown that the treatment, simple as it is, can be quite beneficial.

>>>>>>

Why should balance training prevent ankle sprains? The reasons are both obvious and quite subtle. Until recently, clinicians thought that ankle sprains were primarily a matter of overstretched, traumatized ligaments. Tape or brace the joint, relieve pressure on the sore tissue, and a person should heal fully, they thought. But that approach ignored the role of the central nervous system, which is intimately tied in to every joint. “There are neural receptors in ligaments,” says Jay Hertel, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Virginia and an expert on the ankle. When you damage the ligament, “you damage the neuro-receptors as well. Your brain no longer receives reliable signals” from the ankle about how your ankle and foot are positioned in relation to the ground.

How low can the price of oil go?

Oil prices have started back down again in the last couple of weeks - because of reduced demand (bad economy!).

How low can they go? Here's a good discussion, including a guy who says it's possible the price could fall to $20 a barrel. Sorry for the brief commenrcial at the beginning.

Baseball statistics about to get an upgrade

Digital cameras + computer power.

With New System, Digital Eyes Will Chart Baseball’s Unseen Skills - NYTimes.com

As baseball’s statistical revolution marches on, the last refuge for the baseball aesthete has been the sport’s less quantifiable skills: outfielders’ arm strength, base-running efficiency and other you-won’t-find-that-in-the-box-score esoterica. But debates over the quickest center fielder or the rangiest shortstop are about to graduate from argument to algorithm.

A new camera and software system in its final testing phases will record the exact speed and location of the ball and every player on the field, allowing the most digitized of sports to be overrun anew by hundreds of innovative statistics that will rate players more accurately, almost certainly affect their compensation and perhaps alter how the game itself is played.

Which shortstops reach the hard-hit grounders up the middle? Which base runners take the fastest path from first base to third? Which right fielders charge the ball quickest and then throw the ball hardest and most accurately? Although the game will continue to answer to forces like wind, glaring sun and the occasional gnat swarm, a good deal of time-honored guesswork will give way to more definite measurements — continuing the trend of baseball front offices trading some traditional game-watching scouts for video and statistical analysts.

>>>>>>

... Even the most traditional fans may appreciate the importance of on-base percentage and other modern offensive statistics, but they still rate fielders by errors and fielding percentage, which are about as computationally sophisticated as a horse clomping its hoof.

The primary job of a fielder is to turn batted balls into outs: an infielder by gobbling up ground balls and throwing them to a base, and an outfielder by catching as many fly balls as possible. But errors (and the rate of not making errors, which is fielding percentage) measure only a fielder’s glaring mistakes — they ignore the more important matter of who reaches balls that others do not.

An inadvertently amusing feature on how a restricted calorie diet may extend life expectancy

Here's an interesting and speculative feature in the science section of this morning's NY Times, about a long term study of rhesus monkeys.

Dieting Monkeys Offer Hope for Living Longer - NYTimes.com

It's filled with amusing lines like "Although people are similar to mice in many ways, they differ in other ways..."

There's an insight.

The papal encyclical and economic justice

I posted a tiny video a couple of days ago.  The Pope's social justice encyclical: "Charity and truth are the essence of Christian revelation" 

Here's a good analysis that is not too long. Prints out at five and a half pages.

OSV | Our Sunday Visitor July 19, 2009 | Pontiff espouses economic justice in "Caritas in Veritate"

The document appeared July 7 on the eve of a gathering of the Group of Eight -- a forum for leaders of wealthy industrialized countries -- and three days before a post-G8 meeting between the pope and U.S. President Barack Obama. In a message to the world leaders gathered in L'Aquila, Italy, Pope Benedict urged that in responding to the global economic crisis they "listen to the voice of Africa and the countries least developed economically."

>>>>>>

Personalistic view

A fundamental principle of social doctrine -- perhaps the most basic of all -- is that economic activity is for the person, not vice versa. In this sense the Church's teaching is a direct repudiation of the economic liberalism of the early 19th century and also of the centralized state-run economies of the Soviet Union and other communist countries in the century that followed.

The key concept of this personalistic view, recurring throughout Caritas in Veritate and other documents of the magisterium, is integral development -- the development of the person in respect to the full panoply of human goods.

"Precisely because God gives a resounding 'yes' to man," Pope Benedict writes, "man cannot fail to open himself to the divine vocation to pursue his own development. The truth of development consists in its completeness: if it does not involve the whole man and every man, it is not true development."

One of the encyclical's most striking features is its linking of "life ethics" and "social ethics," an idea whose origin the pope traces to Pope Paul's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae ("Of Human Life") condemning contraception and to Pope John Paul's 1995 Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") opposing abortion and other direct attacks on life. The point could be relevant to healing increasingly visible rifts between pro-life Catholics and so-called social justice Catholics.

>>>>>>

The story is far more complicated viewed from a global perspective. "The risk for our time," says Caritas in Veritate, "is that the de facto interdependence of people is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development." Basically, the encyclical maintains, charity is the answer.

British sex ed program doubles teen pregnancy rate

I don't think that was the idea ...

£6m drive to cut teen pregnancies sees them DOUBLE | Mail Online

The Government-backed scheme tried to persuade teenage girls not to get pregnant by handing out condoms and teaching them about sex.

But research funded by the Department of Health shows that young women who attended the programme, at a cost of £2,500 each, were 'significantly' more likely to become pregnant than those on other youth programmes who were not given contraception and sex advice.

A total of 16 per cent of those on the Young People's Development Programme conceived compared with just 6 per cent in other programmes.

and the program was imported from ... New York!

The failed YPDP, launched in 2004, was based on a similar scheme in New York claimed to have significantly reduced teenage pregnancies.

However, attempts to replicate the work elsewhere in the U.S. did not lead to a fall in teenage pregnancies, casting doubt on the project as a whole.

Mourning real heroes

From Michelle Malkin - her latest column.

Michelle Malkin » Let’s mourn the real American heroes

...I wanted to share an e-mail from reader Noelle, who wrote me yesterday:

We spent a nailbiting Sunday wondering if one of the men killed at [Combat Outpost] Zerok in Afghanistan on July 4th was our son. God bless the Casillas and Fairbairn families in this hour of grief over futures that now will never come to pass. The privates who died were mortarmen, the guys who go outside and return fire. I’m sorry about Michael Jackson’s totally wasted life, but he’s not worth the national crying and hair pulling that will never be done for the two young mortarmen. My son is a third tour “listener” and 33 years old. The base is very small and he said they bond quickly under these circumstances and are bent over with grief as they have to carry on in hostile territory…He called us late evening on Sunday after the Casillas and Fairbairns had been notified about the deaths. He said it was a July 4th the survivors will never forget. There’s always a news and communication blackout until families have been contacted. We live in dread of being the ones to get such news. Thanks for honoring a couple of boys worth the effort.

National healthcare in England = do it yourself dentistry

Funny. check out the picture. An ex-Iraqi war veteran.

And this is in Yorkshire (correction it's East Yorkshire), where much of Brigid's family resides.

Man pulls out 13 of his own teeth with pliers 'because he couldn't find an NHS dentist' | Mail Online

Mr Boynton said: 'I think the situation has improved slightly because of all the uproar. Unfortunately it came too late for me.

'I desperately needed a dentist because, although I'm no longer in pain, I need to have false teeth as I'm finding it difficult to eat.

'Unfortunately I can't make false teeth myself.'

And here's a bonus, also from England -Dentist shortage leads man to superglue own tooth | Mail Online

 

Three for Thursday on the economy - the stimulus that wasn't

UPDATE: Warren Buffett (a Democrat & 2nd richest man in the USA) agrees with me that the first stimulus was simply a pay-off. Buffett Backs Second Stimulus - ABC News

"Our first stimulus bill ... was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in ... as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents,"

The stimulus isn't working! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! There's a news flash. It had no chance to work because it wasn't a stimulus for the economy, it was a payoff to the Democratic party constituencies.

Here's the uber-liberal Center for Economic and Policy Review's (CEPR) Dean Baker essentially making the point.

Beat the Press Archive | The American Prospect

The economists who missed the housing bubble seem to be having a hard time understanding the timing of the stimulus. While the vast majority of the money has not yet been spent, the economy has already felt the bulk of its impact. ...

... In other words, the remaining stimulus is an order of magnitude too small to give much of a boost to the economy. Economists who know arithmetic would be aware of this fact.

Meanwhile, economist Laura Tyson, an "outside advisor" to the President, suggests a second stimulus is in order

Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

And the NY Times says the French got it right the first time ...

France’s Stimulus Projects Were ‘Shovel Ready’ - NYTimes.com

“America is six months behind; it has wasted a lot of time,” said Patrick Devedjian, the minister in charge of the French relance, or stimulus.

How harmful is acetaminophen (tylenol)?

Lots of news recently about a federal panel making reommendations that certain madications with acetominophen be taken off the market, and extra strength tylenol be by prescription only. The feat is acute liver failure.

I think the whole thing is pretty ridiculous - here's a good Q & A on the issue -

 Well - Reasons Not to Panic Over a Painkiller - NYTimes.com

The Pope's social justice encyclical: "Charity and truth are the essence of Christian revelation"

A short video introducing Pope Benedict's third encyclical, published yesterday.

How to save money on healthcare - could be the future

It's so simple. Just cut payments to physicians.

Note - CMS stands for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

 CMS proposes 21.5% cut in Medicare doc payments - Modern Physician

Physicians would receive a 21.5% cut to their Medicare payments starting Jan. 1, 2010, under a proposed rule issued by the CMS.

...Physicians would experience the 21.5% cut in 2010 unless Congress intervenes as it has in the past.

Ahhh, yes. But the past is the past, and it's now a new ballgame!

Very amusing read: "I still hate you, Sarah Palin"

This is funny especially since there's always frequently truth in exaggeration. As the author says "the Republicans bring a knife to a gunfight and lose again."

It also reminded me of what Wolf Blitzer of CNN said at the end of Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention: "Wow. Tonight we've seen a new star born."

I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin by David Kahane on National Review Online

 I’m referring to the aftermath of Sarah Palin’s outrageous acceptance speech, which whipped up the Rotary Club delegates into a frenzy of white-boy fury that not even heckling by a brave Code Pink embed could deter. Truly a fascist classic and one that sent shivers down our collectivist spines.

Even worse was the glaze of horror on the phizzes of the assembled heroes of the Mainstream Media. Andrea Mitchell — yes, the very same Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, whose employer saw no conflict of interest at all when she married then Fed pooh-bah Alan Greenspan — stood there gaping like a frog while the rest of the assembled Finemans and Matthewses and Olbermanns scurried around like roaches when the light gets turned on: What the hell just hit us?

Some tight situations

From my humor consultant Ellen

 

 

Yesterday was the feast of St. Maria Goretti - here's a link to a fascinating post

Yes, life at it's essence is a mystical mystery.

The Catholic Key Blog: Maria Goretti's Murderer and the Death Penalty

The post includes this picture - perhaps you've already figured it out ...?

More on good ol' Sarah Palin

From the NY Times

Op-Ed Columnist - Palin and Her Enemies - NYTimes.com

She should have said no.

>>>>>>

But she said yes. It wasn’t the right thing to do, in hindsight, but it was certainly the human thing. She was coming off a charmed rise through statewide politics. John McCain was offering her a spot on a national ticket. It was the chance of a lifetime.

And now, seemingly, it’s over. Oh, maybe not forever: she’s only 45, young enough (and, yes, talented enough) to have a second act. But last Friday’s bizarre, rambling resignation speech should take her off the political map for the duration of the Obama era.

One hopes that was intentional. A Sarah Palin who stepped down for the sake of her family and her media-swarmed state deserves sympathy even from the millions of Americans who despise her. A Sarah Palin who resigned in the delusional belief that it would give her a better shot at the presidency in 2012 warrants no such kindness.

and the Washington Times

BREITBART: New York Times Barbie strikes again - Washington Times

Misses Dowd, Couric and Fey - Obama's Angels (featuring Joy Behar in the role of "Bosley") - used a potent mix of mockery, snobbery and vitriol to undermine Mrs. Palin's feminist bona fides.

They are what my wife calls "pad throwers," an allusion to the shower room scene in the Stephen King film "Carrie," in which the popular girls throw sanitary napkins and tampons at the film's namesake.

Simply put, they are bullies. And female bullies - "Mean Girls" as Miss Fey's film calls them - are the cruelest kind.

Primarily motivated by a desire to keep abortion "safe, legal and rare," female liberals in the media have carte blanche to do and say anything.

But since Mrs. Palin, a mother of five including a boy who was known to have Down syndrome before he was born, is a potent symbol of the pro-life movement, she is considered an enemy of the sisterhood.

Cut rate airline will give you a bar stool rather than a seat

Really!

The low-cost airline would charge passengers less on "bar stools" with seat belts around their waists.

Ryanair to make passengers stand - Telegraph

and there's more -

Earlier this year Mr O'Leary suggested passengers could be charged £1 to use the on-board lavatories.

In an interview on BBC television he said that the low-cost airline was looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that "people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny."

Mr O'Leary also considered introducing a "fat tax" for overweight passengers.

Joe, off to first job this morning

Joe has his first job* and it started today. He's going to be doing some computer setting up in the BOCES system in this area. He was very lucky to get the job, which came at the invitation of the Dad of one of Tim's friends.

It's a good first-time job, especially in the current job environment, where lots of high school and college students haven't been able to find anything.

Here he is, getting ready to head out this morning.

 

 

My father would be saying, "get a haircut, you bum..."

*Not counting his work for me, as my IT guy.

A little about P.D.S. (Palin Derangement Syndrome)

It's interesting to contrast Rush Limbaugh's sensible comments, Rush Limbaugh on Palin and the Washington Post's sensible news analysis A fair-minded Washington Post feature on Sarah Palin's decision, with people suffering from PDS.

A great exmple of which is Maureen Dowd's Sunday column Op-Ed Columnist - Now, Sarah’s Folly - NYTimes.com

But rather then reading Dowd, better to read Ann Althouse's (not a right wing nut job; voted for Obama) deconstruction of Dowd's column. 

Althouse: "Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy," says Maureen Dowd, who wants to be sure you know that Sarah Palin is crazy.

Werner Wolf on ABC radio this morning commenting on Dowd's column used one word: "jealousy."

Why trampolines aren't safe in Wisconsin

My humor consultant Ellen pointed this out to me -

Rush Limbaugh on Palin

What does it all mean? With typical Rush honesty he says "I don't know."

Audio is three and a half minutes.

Soldier in "Pink Boxers" comes home

the young guy who jumped into the fight in his underwear and whose photograph made the front pages a couple of months ago.

Soldier Pink Boxers

A fair-minded Washington Post feature on Sarah Palin's decision

in this morning's paper, a reasonable analysis.

Concerns About Spotlight's Glare, Effect on Family, Prompted Palin's Decision - washingtonpost.com

Jobs? Stimulus? Tilting at Windmills

UPDATE - I composed this post Friday evening (before Palin's anouncement), even though it only appeared today (Sunday). The last sentence still applies.

As they frequently do, the Wall Street Journal gets it right with this weekend editorial. The stimulus had nothing to do with helping the general economy and everything to do with paying off Democratic Party constituencies.

The last sentence: "The best thing Mr. Obama could do to create jobs would be to declare he's dropping all of this and starting over."

 Tilting at Windmill Jobs - WSJ.com

... Average hours worked per week dropped to 33, the lowest level in at least 40 years. This means that millions of full-time workers are being downgraded to part-time, as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water. Because people are working less, wages have fallen by 0.3% this year. Factories are operating at only 65% capacity, while the overall jobless rate hit 9.5%. Throw in discouraged workers who want full-time work, and the labor underutilization rate climbed to 16.5%.

The news is even worse for young people, with nearly one in four teenagers unemployed. Congress has scheduled an increase in the minimum wage later this month, which will price even more of these unskilled youths out of a vital start on the career ladder. One useful policy response would be for Congress to rescind the wage hike to $7.25 an hour (from $6.55) that is scheduled for July 24. But the union economic model that now dominates Washington holds that wages only matter for those who already have jobs. The jobs that are never created don't count.

The goods producing sector -- Americans who make things -- shed 223,000 more jobs last month. Asked about these job losses by the Associated Press yesterday, President Obama said Congress should pass his cap-and-tax on carbon energy because "If we're weatherizing every building and home in America, if we are creating windmills and solar panels and biofuel facilities, that is a huge promising area not only for jobs here in the United States, but also for export growth." But even under the most optimistic scenario, not every hard-hat worker in America can make windmill blades and solar panels. With manufacturing on its back, enacting a new energy tax to drive more jobs offshore is crazy even on Keynesian grounds.

Weatherizing buildings and constucting windmills is going to create millions of jobs? What an absurdity. And they said Sarah Palin was unqualified.

Peggy Noonan on David McCullough: America's "greatest living historian"

Good Fourth of July column. David McCullough is certainly a great writer. Here's a review I did of "1776." Tom Faranda's Folly: Latest read - "1776"

And way back when I was living in Jamaica - 30 years ago! - I read one of his first books "The Path Between the Seas" about the building of the Panama Canal. Outstanding.

Making History - WSJ.com

On David McCullough: Almost all the details in the above come from his "John Adams" and "1776". He is America's greatest living historian. He has often written about great men and the reason may be a certain law of similarity: He is one also. His work has been broadly influential, immensely popular, respected by his peers (Pulitzer Prizes for "Truman" and "John Adams," National Book Awards for "The Path Between the Seas" and "Mornings on Horseback") and by the American public. It is not often—it is increasingly rare—that the academy shares the views of the local dry cleaner, the student flying coach and the high school teacher, but all agree on Mr. McCullough, as they did half a century ago on, say, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. He is admired by normal people and esteemed by the intellectual establishment.

Why? Here are a few reasons. He has the eye of a gifted reporter and the depth of a historian. He sees and explains the true size of an incident or endeavor, he factors in, always, the fact that we are human, and he captures the detail that is somehow so telling—it was a scarf of green silk, not soft muslin, that Rodney wore to the vote on American independence. He writes like a dream, of course. He is broad gauged and has range—the Johnstown flood, the building of the Panama Canal, the founders.

Mr. McCullough betrays no need to be contrarian but is only too happy to knock down history's clichés, to wit George III, the mad doofus, who was in fact "tall and rather handsome" and played both the violin and piano. "His favorite composer was Handel, but he adored also the music of Bach." He rendered "quite beautiful architectural drawings," assembled a distinguished art collection, collected books that in time constituted "one of the finest libraries in the world," loved astronomy, was nonetheless practical, and had a gift for putting people at their ease. He impressed even crusty old Samuel Johnson, who after meeting him called him "the finest gentleman I have ever seen." As for the famous madness, he suffered not during the American Revolution but later in life from what appears to have been "prophyria, a hereditary disease not diagnosed until the twentieth century."

One can't know if Mr. McCullough is correct in his judgment here, or fully so. One can know he inspected the available data, pondered it, and attempted a fair-minded assessment. He is reliable. (Of how many can that be said?) And he loves America. His work has gone to explaining it to itself, to telling its story.

Almost two years ago, I was lucky enough to tour Mount Vernon with a dozen people including him. (If I were David McCullough I would know the date and time. But I know the weather.) At the bottom of a stairway leading to the second floor, we chatted for a moment, and I asked him how he accounted in his imagination for the amazing fact of the genius cluster that founded our nation. How did so many gifted men, true geniuses, walk into history at the same time, in the same place, and come together to pursue so brilliantly a common endeavor? "I think it was providential," he said, simply.

Well, so do I. If you do too, it's part of what you're celebrating today.

Sarah Palin steps down as Alaskan Governor - a 20 minute speech with NO teleprompter

Running for President? An MSNBC talk show host? Make big bucks travelling the country for the next year or two giving speeches? I suppose the many Palin-haters will have a field day - "quitter."

Here's the first 13 minutes of her announcement.

Here's her brother's explanation -

Talking points on not messing up healthcare reform

Asks and answers 12 big questions. It's going to be ohhh sooo easy to mess up health care -

Parsing the Health Reform Arguments - WSJ.com

I especially liked these:

- "The cost of health care rises two to three times as fast as inflation."

That's like comparing the price of hamburger 30 years ago with the price of filet mignon today and calling the difference inflation. Or the price of a 19-inch, black-and-white TV 30 years ago with the price of a 50-inch HDTV today. The improvements in medical care are even more dramatic, leading to longer life, less pain, fewer exploratory surgeries and miracle drugs. Of course the research, the equipment and the training that produce these improvements don't come cheap.

- "Forty-five million people in the U.S. are uninsured."

Even if this were true (many dispute it) should we risk destroying a system that works for the vast majority to help 15% of our population?

- "The cost of treating the 45 million uninsured is shifted to the rest of us."

So on Monday, Wednesday and Friday we are harangued about the 45 million people lacking medical care, and on Tuesday and Thursday we are told we already pay for that care. Left-wing reformers think that if they split the two arguments we are too stupid to notice the contradiction. Furthermore, if cost shifting is bad, wait for the Mother of all Cost Shifting when suppliers have to overcharge the private plans to compensate for the depressed prices forced on them by the public plan.

- "We need a public plan to keep the private plans honest."

The 1,500 or so private plans don't produce enough competition? Making it 1,501 will do the trick? But then why stop there? Eating is even more important than health care, so shouldn't we have government-run supermarkets "to keep the private ones honest"? After all, supermarkets clearly put profits ahead of feeding people. And we can't run around naked, so we should have government-run clothing stores to keep the private ones honest. And shelter is just as important, so we should start public housing to keep private builders honest. Oops, we already have that. And that is exactly the point. Think of everything you know about public housing, the image the term conjures up in your mind. If you like public housing you will love public health care.

"Black is thicker than Blood"

a little New Zealand All Black rugby thingie - an adidas ad. Starts with the Haka "dance of welcome". The Black refers to the All Black's jersey. I love this stuff.

Catholic guy decides he should go to confession

From my humor consultant Karen -

A Catholic guy goes into the confessional box.

He notices on one side a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap.

On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest Cuban cigars.

Then the priest comes in.

"Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession,

but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting these days."

 

The priest replies "Get out. You're on my side."

Health Update

Yesterday was my six month trip/check-up at Sloan Kettering with lymphoma guru Dr. Andrew Zelenetz.

No CAT scan - that's only once a year now - just bloodwork and a quick examination and meeting.

Everything was fine - in fact Dr. Zelenetz seemed almost a little surprised that everything is still going well, three and a half years after my chemo and autologous stem cell transplant.

Hard to believe I started this weblog in 2005 to keep in touch with people who were interested in my ongoing treatment. The last time I actually did a "health update" was almost exactly six months ago, following my last check-up and scan at the end of 2008.

Next check-up is December 30th and will include a CAT scan.

Fr. Daniel Berrigan at 88

The most recent issue of the Jesuit publication America has a short article featuring an interview with Berrigan.

I know Dan Berrigan a bit - although I haven't seen him in several years. in 1995 I was at his apartment with a small group planning a demonstration on the 50th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Japan. I was arrested with him on about three occasions in the nineties protesting nuclear weapons (I suppose I'm name-dropping and bragging).

I appreciate the fact that Berrigan - unlike many of the Catholic social justice crowd - spoke out on all the issues, including abortion. He was arrested several  times protesting at "clinics".

His writings are wonderful - here's a fine collection from over the years - Testimony The Word Made Fresh http://www.amazon.com/Testimony-Word-Fresh-Daniel-Berrigan/dp/1570755450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246498532&sr=8-1

And here's the America article - it's relatively short. I think it's in the free article section but if you can't access it, email me and I'll send you the code to get onto the site.

America | The National Catholic Weekly - Looking Back In Gratitude

What are you most grateful for as you look back over your long life?” I asked Daniel Berrigan, S.J., who is 88. We were sitting last December in his light-filled living room at the Jesuit residence in Manhattan where he has lived since 1975. He answered immediately: “My Jesuit vocation.” Any regrets? I asked. “I could have done sooner the things I did, like Catonsville,” he replied. That historic act of burning draft files took place in the parking lot of a U.S. Selective Service Office in Catonsville, outside Baltimore, Md., on May 17, 1968. It was one of the earliest and most dramatic of several demonstrations for peace in which Berrigan took part over the years.

>>>>>>

Throughout most of his life as a Jesuit, Daniel Berrigan has consistently spoken out against violence in all its forms, including abortion. “I have always made it clear,” he said, “that I am against everything from war to abortion to euthanasia. I have avoided being a single-issue person.”

The community’s consistent support for his varied activities over three decades is something else for which Father Berrigan is especially grateful. With considerable understatement, he suggested that the inscription over his grave might read: “It was never dull. Alleluia.”

Dramatic river rescue

by construction workers. Hit the link if the video dosn't load.

Woman pulled from Des Moines River in dramatic rescue; husband drowns | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register

More baseball - Red Sox blow nine run lead; mail them a TS card

And the Yanks have won six in a row. I posted this early this morning -  Mariano Rivera - 500 saves and counting so I'm on a baseball roll.

Orioles Register Biggest Comeback in Team History, Stunning Boston, 11-10 - washingtonpost.com

The 14 year old girl who survived the Yemeni air crash

No life vest and didn't know how to swim

Yemenia Airbus carrying 153 passengers crashes into Indian Ocean | Mail Online

The crashed plane was the second Airbus to plunge into the sea within a month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing 228 people on board on June 1.

The Paris-Marseille-Yemen leg of the Yemenia flight was flown by an Airbus A330. In Yemen, those passengers flying on to the Comoros changed onto a second plane, the A310 that crashed.

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said Paris had banned this specific A310 from its airspace after faults were found in 2007.

Comoran vice-president Nadhoim, speaking on France 24 television today criticised French authorities for failing to pass on that information to Comoros.

'Bearing in mind that these are planes made by Airbus, a big European company, we would have expected France to pass on to us the list of aircraft banned from flying in Europe,' he said.

>>>>>>

The teenager who was rescued attributed her survival to being ‘ejected’ from the striken Yemenia airways Airbus as it broke up off the archipelago of Comoros on Monday.

Speaking from Paris her father Kassim Bakari said: ‘She felt nothing, and was found in the water. She heard people talking around her but saw nobody during the night.

‘She was ejected. She was found beside the plane. I never thought she would get out like that. It’s the Good Lord who wanted it.’

When the emergency services finally reached the schoolgirl they found her surrounded by clothes, suitcases, and even passports and photographs of victims.

She had climbed on to a portion of wreckage – believed to be part of the plane’s cabin – but kept slipping back into the sea while clinging on to part of it with her hands.

By the time a boat’s torch picked her out in the depths, she could hardly move

Mariano Rivera - 500 saves and counting

Nice article in yesterday's NY Times. Rivera is so fluid and makes everything look sooo easy when he comes in for the save. He's wonderful to watch (unless you're rooting for the other team). And that cut fastball.

Besides getting his 500th save, he also got his first career RBI when the Mets closer walked him with the bases loaded Sunday night.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see another Mariano Rivera,” Girardi said. “I really don’t believe we will.”

Since 1996, Yankees’ Rivera Has Made It Look as Easy as 1-2-3 - NYTimes.com

and here's his very fascinating Wikipedia entry. the Yanks signed Rivera out of Panama (where he had worked on a fishing boat) for $3,000. (Buy that scout a beer yacht.)

Mariano Rivera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vatican says bones in St. Paul's Basilica are the Apostle Paul

"...confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle St. Paul..."

Pope: Basilica bones belong to apostle St. Paul - CNN.com

Archbishop Dolan given symbol of leadership by the Pope

Pope Benedict bestows sacred symbol of leadership on Archbishop Dolan at pallium ceremony

So what did the Pope say?

That's what the New York pilgrims asked Archbishop Timothy Dolan after Pope Benedict lingered a minute at Monday's sacred pallium ceremony.

"You know, I went up to the Holy Father, and I haven't told anybody what he said to me," Dolan told the faithful.

"I said, 'My name is Timothy Dolan and I'm from New York,' and he said, 'Ah . . . Yankees or Mets?' "

When the laughter died down at Cecilia Metella restaurant on the Appian Way, the now-official archbishop of 2.5 million New York Catholics noted the empty wine bottles, especially one he shared with Edward Cardinal Egan.

"We call the empty bottles 'dead soldiers,' " he said. "But you know the saying: 'They didn't die without a priest.' "

Good posting by Larry Kudlowe on Madoff

The big questions (1) Where's the money and (2) who else is involved?

Kudlow's Money Politic$: Madoff Sentenced, But He Didn’t Sing

Neither his wife nor his two sons have been deposed. Nor have these other characters who probable looted the funds.

The thing about a Ponzi scheme is others besides Ponzi can get rich. And there are names in circulation of people who may also have gotten rich. But where’s the money? When will these people be brought in to testify under oath? The thousands of other smaller investors and charities who were totally ripped off by Madoff could recover a lot more if these big shots are finally hammered.

Who knew this place existed?

Who knew? I been there metaphorically ...

In Honduras, who acted illegally - the president or the military?

I have been reading th "Americas" column in the Wall Street Journal for years. it's written weekly by:

Mary Anastasia O'Grady is a member of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and editor of the "Americas," a weekly column that appears every Monday in the Journal and deals with politics, economics and business in Latin America and Canada.

and is very insightful. So while I don't know much about Honduras I would lean towards trusting her judgement.

O'Grady: Honduras Defends Its Democracy - WSJ.com

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.

So, the army acted under a Supreme Court order.

Here is another spin.

Obama says coup in Honduras is illegal | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

Nicholas Kristoff video on the reporter's craft - covering a humanitarian crisis

The NY Times op ed writer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVVdH8n5470

The Late Billy Mays pitches the Obama stimulus plan

If you watch cable TV, you've seen uber-pitchman Billy Mays many times. He died suddenly a couple of days ago at the age of 50, evidently of heart disease.

He was on the Neil Cavuto business show a few months ago - and this short video (hit the link; can't embed) is pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DUuWm0U8TI

Supreme Court reverses Sotomayor's ruling regarding the firemen in New Haven

This is pretty big, since Sonia Sotomayor is very likely to be on the Supreme Court in the next session.

She made her original decision while on the Appeals Court without comment - in other words she did not explain her decision.

Court rules for white firefighters over promotions - washingtonpost.com

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

Prince Charles - giving his all for his country

The Man who would be King

Two prominent economists - Blinder & Laffer - on no inflation vs. inflation

A HUGE issue. Well worth watching - a 20 second commercial and then 7 minute video. 

It seems to me that for the Federal Reserve to keep serious inflation from occurring, say in the 18 month to three year time cycle, they will have to pitch a perfect game. And perfect games are very rare.

My (our) anniversary

As mentioned here, Tom Faranda's Folly: Anniversary tomorrow - here are a few Brigid pix from the past, Tom and Brigid's 30th anniversary was the past Tuesday.

I took most of the morning off, and we went for a walk on Croton Point - mostly around and across the now-capped Croton Dump! Then we went to dinner at the Malabar Hill (Indian restaurant in Elmsford) with the boys.

Herewith the walk

 

Brigid with two of her anniversary presents - waterproof hat from Tim and walking stick from her big-spending husband. It's a great-looking stick but at a pound and a half, and with no adjustability in length, probably best for looking at, and not carrying... That's a whistle attached to the leather lanyard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, fast forward nine of ten hours and here we are at the Malabar Hill. If you like Indian food, Malabar is good value.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brigid, showing off some gifts (shirt and bracelet) she got from her sisters

 

This was taken by the waiter. Below it is a picture taken by another waiter in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in April, 2005.

 

Montego Bay, breakfast on April 25th 2005. Another of my favorite pictures.

More on healthcare - from the Obama ABC special on Thursday

This from the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

If we want ever-improving healthcare, than the price of care, as a perecntage of our gross national product (GNP) is going to rise. Period. There's no way around it.

But the President's health reforms - ostensibly to save money -   if enacted, are going to lead to rationing. no way around it.

Obama's Health Future - WSJ.com

At one point in the town hall, broadcast from the East Room by ABC news, a woman named Jane Sturm told the story of her 105-year-old mother, who, at 100, was told by an arrhythmia specialist that she was too old for a pacemaker. She ended up getting a second option, and the operation, for which Ms. Sturm credits her survival.

"Look, the first thing for all of us to understand that is we actually have some -- some choices to make about how we want to deal with our own end-of-life care," Mr. Obama replied. After discussing ways "we as a culture and as a society [can start] to make better decisions within our own families and for ourselves," he continued that in general "at least we can let doctors know and your mom know that, you know what? Maybe this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."

Unless you are one of the forutnate few in charge of things ...

... a physician asked Mr. Obama if he would subject his own family to the restrictions of a national health plan, even if specialists recommended treatments that weren't covered. The President was noncommittal: "And you're absolutely right that, if it's my family member, if it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care."

Solidarity with Iran

That's the title of a thoughful editorial in the Wall Street Journal this weekend.

So where do we go from here, particularly now that demonstrations are abating in the face of increased repression?

* * *

One place to begin is by studying the example of U.S. policy toward Solidarity, the Polish trade union that challenged the Communist regime in the early 1980s.

A worthwhile read.

Solidarity With Iran - WSJ.com

... there are opportunities for the Obama Administration to exploit, provided it envisions a democratic and peaceful Iran as a strategic American aim. That doesn't mean military confrontation with the mullahs. But it does require taking every opportunity to apply consistent pressure on Iran while exploiting its internal tensions and contradictions.

"I often wondered why Ronald Reagan did this, taking the risks he did, in supporting us at Solidarity," Mr. Walesa wrote in these pages after Reagan died in 2004. "Let's remember that it was a time of recession in the U.S. and a time when the American public was more interested in their own domestic affairs. It took a leader with a vision to convince them that there are greater things worth fighting for."