Tom Faranda's Folly

If you have cable, you've seen P90X, right?

Sunday the business section of the NY Times had a big feature on the P90X fitness phenomenon. You know, the 90 day XTRMEME fitness program sold by a guy named Tony Horton on cable infomercials. In fact, the day befroe the article was published I watched a few minutes of one of the infomercials while working out on the ellyptical in the gym.

But Wait! There's More!

Hit the link - a good and fun article about the dual phenomenons of infomercial selling and fitness.

The Fitness Revolution Will Be Televised (After Leno)

IT’S 3 a.m., and Tony Horton is talking to you, couch potato.

“Get absolutely ripped in 90 days!”

Viewer, check out those abs, those pecs, those glutes.

“Guaranteed or your money back!”

This man is 52 years old — and probably buffer than you’ll ever be.

“All for three easy payments of $39.95!”

On televisions across America, Tony Horton is selling a burning-sweat vision of physical fitness, and these days, a lot of people are buying. He is the pitchman and wise-cracking star of a brutal, make-it-stop workout called P90X, and he has won converts from Hollywood to Capitol Hill. The singer Sheryl Crow, the sportscaster Erin Andrews, the former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, Representative Paul Ryan and a dozen or more of his Congressional colleagues, and the list goes on and on.

P90X fans swear by the workout, a mix of jumping, yoga, martial arts and strength training that, in fact, isn’t all that revolutionary. But the secret of P90X’s success is the marketing: Mr. Horton and his business partners say they have built a $400-million-a-year empire on what, to many, might seem like a foundation of schlock: TV infomercials.

******

The early P90X infomercials bombed. But that changed when, at Mr. Daikeler’s urging, customers like “Dallas C.” and “Kristy M.” began sending in before-and-after pictures, now featured on the company’s infomercials and Web site. More than three million copies have been sold since then, with sales increasing every year through 2010 (they are currently running even with last year), company officials said.

Now Mr. Daikeler, 47, wants to more than double his annual sales to $1 billion. To do so, he will have to move beyond the buff clientele who have embraced P90X to an even bigger market: Americans who are overweight or nowhere near as fit as they need to be to keep up with P90X.

 

 

Sarah Palin and her bus tour

I love the fact that all these political pundits and operatives, whether they're for her or against her, are confused. So what?

She's touring historical sites in the northeast. To quote Sinatra "I did it my way."

Sarah Palin's bus tour prompts confusion on Day 2

“This isn’t a campaign bus,” Palin said, according to reports. “This is a bus to be able to express to America how much we appreciate our foundation and to invite more people to be interested in all that is good about America and to remind ourselves we don’t need to fundamentally transform America, we need to restore what’s good about America.”

For supporters and reporters looking for more details, Palin isn’t providing them.

Good! I love the unconventiality. She's promoting America.

Memorial Day in Croton, 2011: "Amazing Grace"

As part of the half hour ceremony, Christine Turturro, who went to pre-school with Tim.

A nice crowd of around 250.

Lovely.

 

And four pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice feature about the man who originated Memorial Day

And it was actually his wife's idea -

From the Civil War to the Philippines, the Logans served with honor

Maj. Gen. John Alexander “Black Jack” Logan, the father of Memorial Day, was also the father of a hero. Gen. Logan was a noted Union officer in the Civil War, and after the conflict served in Congress from Illinois and led the veteran’s organization the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). In the spring of 1868, his wife accompanied Gen. William T. Sherman on a tour of southern battlefields, and she noted that the Confederate graves were decorated with flowers. She suggested to her husband that Union soldiers who won the war deserved no less consideration, and Gen. Logan issued GAR General Order No. 11, which designated May 30 as Decoration Day, for “the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country.” Congress formalized this observance as Memorial Day in 1871.

Black Jack’s only son, John A. Logan Jr., wanted to follow in his father’s illustrious footsteps. Young Jack was born shortly after the Civil War ended and grew up playing with the children of his father’s politically influential circle of war heroes. Jack was a favorite of his father’s former commander, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and rode in the presidential carriage during Grant’s second presidential inauguration....

Hit the link for the rest of the story.

Cell phone use bad for male fertility

YIKES! No details, just a short video.

Study: Cell Phone Use Decreases Male Fertility

British Catholics to return to year round Friday abstinence (meatless Fridays)

A twelve paragraph op ed in the WSJ. Hit the link for the further discussion of other older practices which may be due for a comeback.

Bishops in Britain call on Catholics to abstain year-round, not only during Lent.

Catholic tradition calls for acts of penance every Friday, the day of Jesus's death, but observance of that tradition has changed dramatically since the modernizing reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Bishops in most countries eliminated abstinence from meat or limited it to Lent alone, and each Catholic became free to choose his own form of Friday penance: skipping television, perhaps, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. This effectively meant the disappearance of Friday penance altogether. In my 11 years of Catholic schooling, I don't recall hearing it mentioned once.

That's why the announcement by the bishops of England and Wales is so significant. To anyone with a taste for sushi or smoked salmon, missing hamburger once a week might present little inconvenience. But then, lightly beating one's breast, as Catholics do in one version of the Penitential rite during Mass, isn't a serious form of corporal mortification either. Catholicism is a fundamentally symbolic religion whose teachings are typically embodied in conventional signs and gestures.

The English and Welsh bishops specified that they were instructing their flocks to resume Friday abstinence "as a clear and a distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity," adding that the "best habits are those which are acquired as part of a common resolve and common witness."

Palin "Follow our Tour" ad

Yesterday I posted this amusing bit  Kimmel: Palin running for President .

Now here's Sarah on her northeast Memorial Day weekend bus tour.  Pretty good commercial.

Here's an analysis of her tour, by the liberal Politico website.

 

 

 

 

Daily Mail (UK): "Doctors are prescribing drinking water for neglected elderly patients to stop them dying of thirst in hospital."

The Daily Mail is a widely read British tabloid (a bit like the NY Daily News, only racier).

So, is this a form of euthanasia, or just bad socialized medicine?

Elderly patients dying of thirst: Doctors forced to prescribe drinking water to keep the old alive, reveals devastating report on hospital care

The measure – to remind nurses of the most basic necessity – is revealed in a damning report on pensioner care in NHS wards.

******

The snapshot study, triggered by a Mail campaign, found staff routinely ignored patients’ calls for help and forgot to check that they had had enough to eat and drink.

Dehydration contributes to the death of more than 800 hospital patients every year.

Another 300 die malnourished. The latest report – by the Care Quality Commission – found patients frequently complained they were spoken to in a ‘condescending and dismissive’ manner.

The pending 62% maximum tax rate

Some of my friends love this ...

And the math is quite straightforward, based on Administration proposals.

The 62% rate is understated for NY State and even more understated for NY City residents. This is because the analysis assumes the average state income tax of 4%. A New York City high earner will have over a 66% marginal tax rate. 

Democrats have said they only intend to restore the tax rates that existed during the Clinton years. In reality they're proposing rates like those under President Carter.

Kimmel: Palin running for President

HA! (But who'll get the last laugh?)

 

Real life Bear Grylls story

This guy must have watched a few episodes of Man vs. Wild

Francisco Piedrahita, Colombian Academic, Survived On Urine And Plant Stems While Lost In Louisiana Swamp

Rush Limbaugh: what the 2012 Republican campaign slogan should be

"We can't do any worse than you guys"

 

My friend Judy's new grandson Mason pays a visit.

To the deli for coffee a bottle this past Monday, with about eight of us. Along, of course with his Mom, Lee, down from Boston for a visit.

Mason and Mom

Judy and Lee

Grandma

Brigid - and Mason looks happy

I'm pretty good with baby boys (don't know how I'd cope with baby girl ...)

A couple of shots of Rich Fuerst, who knows A LOT about babies!

AND, special bonus if you've gotten this far, a short video.

 

Why stock market analyst buy recommendations don't mean diddly

Actually I should have replaced the word "diddly" up above with another word. Or two.

Yeah, hit the link for a great chart.

According to Wall Street analysts, 92.6% of the companies in the S&P 500 Index are above average.

Netanyahu heckled during speech to Congress; and his response

Joe's graduation

Lovely event, held in the gym at Fordham University.

The 25 second vid.

And three pictures.

 
And Mom

 
and Tim!

 
At the beginning of the ceremony, they started with the National Anthem and it was very well done.  Here's the scene inside the gym.

 

Global Warming Update: Gore speaks (but ... his college grades!)

Haven't done a Global Warming Update in ages. ...

This speech is being widely publicized -

Clinton, N.Y. -- Al Gore, 45th vice president of the U.S., Nobel Laureate and author of An Inconvenient Truth, told Hamilton’s Class of 2011 that the climate crisis is “the most serious challenge that our civilization has ever faced,” and that while the grassroots movement in support of solving the climate crisis is the most powerful in the history of the world, “it will be the generation of you in this graduating class that will really bring about change.” Gore also addressed the political state of our democracy and how decisions made on false assumptions have led to major national challenges.

BUT - so is this information

Gore’s transcript documents that during his sophomore year at Harvard he earned a "D" in Natural Sciences 6 (Man’s Place in Nature). Also, as a senior at Harvard, he earned a C-plus in Natural Sciences 118.

For his college board achievement tests, Gore earned a 488 (out of 800) in physics, and a 519 (out of 800) in chemistry. Gore’s academic records were first obtained and reported on by reporters David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima at The Washington Post in March 2000.

Gore did relatively well, however, on the SAT, earning 1355 (out of 1600). For comparison, George W. Bush got 1206 on the SAT.

I guess you could argue that Gore was a late bloomer? Or  - my position - he just doesn't know what he's talkin' about.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My SAT's were exactly halfway between Bush & Gore's. My son Joe, who graduated from high school yesterday, had higher SAT scores then Gore. I guess this proves ... nothing!

The President's mashed-up toast to the Queen

This is on the Telegraph newspaper (UK) website.

Joe graduates from Fordham Prep today!

YIKES! They told us the four years would go fast, and they have.

Here he is, headed out the door last Thursday for his senior prom. My red tie.

 

Interesting report on the many wives of bin Laden

From the Times of London (UK) via an Australian newspaper.

Although the compound where bin Laden hid for five years was large, the three wives were all cooped up in the same house. The older two lived on the second floor and the youngest one on the top. Their husband alternated between them. Pakistani officials who have been debriefing the women portray life in the compound as an Islamic version of Desperate Housewives.

Senator Reid (D) criticizes Obama over Israel

Speaking at AIPAC, and good for him!

Ouch!

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress

On C-Span in it's entirety

Israeli Prime Minister Addresses Congress

Rugby: European club championship - Leinster (Ire.) vs. Northampton (Eng.)

Oddly the Irish side playing in blue and the English side in green.

Awesome second half turnaround

CNN Heroes: Birth mothers

Nothing to be said.

Sorry I can't embed this video - you'll have to hit the link for the minute and a half CNN feature.

CNN Heroes: Beck Fawcett on birth mothers

Healthcare - arrange a free medical exam

From humor consultant Ellen, who lately is on a roll!

 
 

Tornadovideos.net

amazing.

 From their website -

Above (actually, below) is video of yesterday's horrific tornado in Joplin, Missouri, filmed by the TVN Basehunters storm chasing team of Scott Peake, Colt Forney, Kevin Rolfs and Isaac Pato. The four meteorology students assisted with first response efforts as they arrived in Joplin, even transporting injured victims to the hospital.

"Obama embraces his inner Bush"

With the significant exception of the part of the speech where he said Israel had to start negotiaions with the Palestinians understanding that Israeli borders had to revert to the 1967 borders, I thought the President's speech last week was excellent.

Here are two columns from last week, making the obvious - to me - case that President Obama has to a great extent embraced President Bush's policy of encouraging liberal democratic values in the Middle East. Bush kept saying that this was the only long term answer to the problem of terrorism and most of the other issues plaguing that region of the world (Remember his second inaugural speech? Probably not, because it was downplayed by the media.)

And of course he was laughed at by much of the press and his political enemies. "Unrealistic", "nation-building", "no tradition of democratic values in Islamic countries", etc.

Of course, Bush (and England Prime Minister Blair) were right.

But now, since it's the Obama policy, the liberals and the press are on-board.

From Business Insider -

President Obama's "major" speech on the Middle East and North Africa struck many observers as one that could have been given by his predecessor. And for good reason. Forced by events to choose between a "realist" approach to the events unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa and the more aspirational approach adopted by former President George W. Bush, President Obama channeled his "inner Bush" and went all in.

And here's Charles Krauthammer, in another great column - making the same point - hit the link for all of it!

The news in Obama's speech

Herewith President Obama’s Middle East speech , annotated:

“It will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.”

With this Barack Obama openly, unreservedly and without a trace of irony or self-reflection adopts the Bush Doctrine, which made the spread of democracy the key U.S. objective in the Middle East.

“Too many leaders in the region tried to direct their people’s grievances elsewhere. The West was blamed as the source of all ills.”

Note how even Obama’s rationale matches Bush’s. Bush argued that because the roots of 9/11 were to be found in the deflected anger of repressed Middle Eastern peoples, our response would require a democratic transformation of the region.

“We have a stake not just in the stability of nations, but in the self-determination of individuals.”

A fine critique of exactly the kind of “realism” the Obama administration prided itself for having practiced in its first two years.

How far did this concession to Bush go? Note Obama’s example of the democratization we’re aiming for. He actually said:

“In Iraq, we see the promise of a multiethnic, multisectarian democracy. There, the Iraqi people have rejected the perils of political violence for a democratic process . . . Iraq is poised to play a key role in the region.”

Hail the Bush-Obama doctrine.

“President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition [to democracy], or get out of the way.”

The only jarring note in an otherwise interesting, if convoluted, attempt to unite all current “Arab Spring” policies under one philosophical rubric. Convoluted because the Bahrain part was unconvincing and the omission of Saudi Arabia was unmistakable.

Syria’s Assad leading a transition to democracy? This is bizarre and appalling. Assad has made all-out war on his people — shooting, arresting, executing, even using artillery against cities. Yet Obama is still holding out the olive branch when, if anything, he should be declaring Assad as illegitimate as Gaddafi. Clearly, some habits of engagement/appeasement die hard.

 Poor Bush. Who was the comedian whose tag line was "I don't get no respect"?

 

59 years old - the new young?

Wow! What a coincidence! Hit the link for the whole short article.

The pension’s minister in Britain is trying to convince the nation that 59 is not “old”. The move comes after a large-scale European study found that Britons on average believe that old age starts earlier than most other nationalities in Europe do. Only the Turks view old age as starting earlier - at 55. The Greeks are the most optimistic, holding that you are not old until you turn 68.

Photo of the informant responsible for outing bin Laden

Sent to me by my friend Ellen.

The Pentagon just released a photo of the man who worked for years to make it possible for the CIA to obtain the credible information necessary to lead them to the hidden compound of Osama bin Laden. He is eligible to get the $25M reward the US Government was offering.

 

 

Judgement Day comes and goes; glad I didn't cancel my gym membership

As the radio evangelist Howard Camping makes another looney prediction. He had previously predicted the coming of the rapture in 1994, and then said he'd gotten his math wrong.

I discovered Howard in the late 1990's when I was coaching the North Jersy Rugby Club. He was on a New Jersey radio station and I'd sometimes listen to him whil I was driving home from Jersey.

He had his own brand of Christianity - if you could call it that - and it was very clear that he felt there'd be very few people with him inside the Pearly Gates. The rest of us were lost. Camping especially despised Catholicism.

I doubt if his followers will be dissuaded by his little miscalculation.

Currency debasement: another word for inflation & here's how the Romans did it

Here's an interesting chart.

Roman Coin Chart That Doomsayers Love To Pass Around

It shows, basically, that currency debasement is as old as currency itself, as Romans gradually chipped away at the amount of silver in their coins.

The further lesson, from history, apparently, is that in addition to currency debasement being a characteristic of great empires, total collapse is, too.

AlJazeera's coverage of the Netanyahu-Obama stare-down

UPDATE: How's this for a NY Times understatement headline? Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace

At their meeting with the press Friday, after the President on Thursday said that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations had to start with Israel's agreeing to return to their pre-1967 borders.

But first, here's the CBS coverage - you have to hit the link since they don't allow embedding - showing more of the frosty meeting.

Obama, Netanyahu make no progress

Now here's AlJazeera coverage.

How to tell the sex of a fly

From humor consultant Ellen.

Very interesting - I had never heard this before.

 

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Hunting flies" He responded.

"Oh. killing any?" She asked.

"Yep. 3 males. 2 females." He replied.

Intrigued, she asked, "How can you tell them apart?"

 He responded "3 were on a beer can. 2 were on the phone."

Supreme Court Justice Alito: "I've never earned an honest living."

As he comes up with a humorous response to the charge he (and the Supreme Court) are pro-business.

The court is “pro business.” Alito recalled seeing one television commentator assert that Alito had previously worked for the Chamber of Commerce. "I wondered if I was suffering from amnesia and thought I'd better check my resumé,” Alito said. “The only employers I've ever had have been the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court. I've never earned an honest living."

Former NYC Mayor Koch not happy over Obama's position on Israel

To put it mildly. Here's the article -

... the former New York City mayor said, “Mitt Romney correctly summed it up when he said that President Obama has once again thrown Israel under the bus.

“I believe this is the most dangerous and critical period that Israel has ever faced and regrettably it does not have the support of the President of the United States, which in past difficult situations it could count on.”

And here's the embedded video interview -

Rugby: Super 15's, South Africa Cheetahs vs. New Zealand Crusaders

The southern hemisphere provincial tournament between South African, New Zealand, and Australian teams.

 

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on the priest abuse scandal.

Here are the news reports from the NY Times and Washington Post, each with a slightly differnet slant on the study. Worth hitting the links and reading in full.

The NYT -

A five-year study commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops to provide a definitive answer to what caused the church’s sexual abuse crisis has concluded that neither the all-male celibate priesthood nor homosexuality were to blame.

Instead, the report says, the abuse occurred because priests who were poorly prepared and monitored, and were under stress, landed amid the social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s.

Known occurrences of sexual abuse of minors by priests rose sharply during those decades, the report found, and the problem grew worse when the church’s hierarchy responded by showing more care for the perpetrators than the victims.

******

... the John Jay report says that when it comes to analyzing the incidence and causes of sexual abuse, “No organization has undertaken a study of itself in the manner of the Catholic Church.”

Because there are no comparable studies conducted by other institutions, religious or secular, the report says, “It is impossible to accurately compare the rate of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church to rates of abuse in other organizations.”

And WaPo -

The largest study ever done on youth sexual abuse by Catholic clergy concludes that the scandal that became public in 2002 was a temporary problem caused by poorly trained seminarians, bishops who focused too little on victims and a permissive culture in the 1960s and 1970s that saw an increase in divorce, marijuana experimentation and robbery.

It has been closely watched by experts, historians and advocates for victims and accused priests. This is because John Jay was given unprecedented access by the church — which paid for about half the study — to priests’ personnel files and psychosexual testing, as well as seminary records. The subject of clergy sex abuse ignites multiple culture war flames, with various sides blaming homosexuality, celibacy, church secrecy and societal turmoil.

Supporters and critics of the church were already speaking out about the study, whose general contours researchers have publicly described over the years.

“Who else has studied child sex abuse at this level? No other organization has anything similar. If we’re really serious about keeping kids safe, other organizations have to follow suit: the public schools, the Boy Scouts, sporting organizations,” said Tom Plante, a psychologist who works with Catholic clergy and consulted the bishops for this study.

“This report misses the boat. What deserves the most scrutiny are not child sex crimes but continued clergy cover-ups of child sex crimes,” the advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Tuesday in a statement.

Kimmel: Trying to Fix "Dancing with the Stars" results

I've actually never watched DWTS -

 

Black intellectual Cornel West launches blistering tirade against the President

Whew. Nine short paragraphs. Looney leftist.

Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual, is harshly criticizing President Obama, a candidate he once supported but now calls “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

West, a former Harvard University professor, said during an interview with the website Truthdig posted yesterday that the president has not been true to his race.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West said. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white…When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening.”

Is the Federal Reserve QE2 (Quanitative Easing) policy really expanding the money supply?

Here's a chart and article that says no (which means the concern about inflation may be overblown).

NOTE: Moderate Wonkiness Alert goes along with this chart and short article.

The Biggest Myth About QE2 Gets Busted

 

Martin Short's farewell song for bin Laden

On Letterman. Sorry, couldn't resist posting.

WaPo op ed: Heritage Foundation not happy having the President link them to Obamacare

Worth hitting the link and reading the whole thing, from the Conservative think tank  -

Think tank analysts usually brim with pride when the president of the United States goes around claiming that his policies are based on their work. But when President Obama tries to sell his health-care law as a moderate approach that borrows ideas developed by the Heritage Foundation, we get incensed.

The Obama health-care law "builds" on the Heritage health reform model only in the sense that, say, a double-quarter-pounder with cheese "builds" on the idea of a garden salad. Both have lettuce and tomato and may be called food, but the similarities end there.

This is why we at the Heritage Foundation respectfully ask President Obama and his acolytes to stop misrepresenting our research. We think this massive health law is abominable and should be repealed. And until Congress repeals it, lawmakers should starve this monstrosity of taxpayer funds.

******

This law constitutes a massive alteration of the constitutional balance of power between the federal government and the states, and strikes at the heart of American federalism. This is probably not something President Obama gives a whit about, but we at Heritage do.

 

Queen Elizabeth losing it? She declines pint of Guinness while visiting Ireland!

Truly the sun has set on the Empire ...

CBS - Queen declines pint of Guinness

Boston Herald newspaper: Schwarzenegger now a Kennedy

I suppose that's one (unkind) take on the situation ...

Now it’s official: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Kennedy

 

I hope some of my friends will do a Cindy Crawford

Seems Crawford may have done a flip-flop; perhaps she realized that Hope & Change = Smoke & Mirrors?

Cindy Crawford now backing Romney?

Wolf (her publicist) said Crawford appeared at the event as a favor to Tagg Romney, who is a friend of Crawford's and the son of the ex-Massachusetts governor. Wolf added that like many other people, Crawford is undecided on who she will support in 2012.

AED's and heart attack survival

CBS has a piece on AED's.

Sorry about the commercial - CBS does not allow for embedding videos.

AEDs up survival rates for heart attacks

Huckabee's exit good for my candidate?

Romney. (Who by the way ,raised over $10 million in one day, just through a one day phone event, as his big donors made calls.)

If John Ellis at Business Insider says so, it must be true.

Among those who remain, the immediate beneficiary of Huckabee's departure is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He was all but certain to finish second (or maybe third) in Iowa. Huckabee beat him there in 2008 and he would have beaten him again in 2012. With Huckabee out, Romney is now much more likely to face divided "social conservative" opposition (Palin, Bachmann, Santorum, newcomers) in Iowa. The more divided social conservatives are in Iowa, the better it is for Romney.

He also points out that whoever is President from 2013 to 2017 is going to face horrendous difficulties (of course they'd be less horrendous if we faced up to them now ...)

... Whoever is president from January 2013 through January 2017 is going to have to make some very difficult decisions; all of them certain to earn him or her the undying emnity of powerful constituencies across the country.  He or she will have to cut the military budget by at least 15 percent, discretionary spending by at least 15 percent, Medicare and Medicaid by 20 percent at a minimum.  And on top of that, he or she gets to reconfigure Social Security so that it is means-tested and starts paying out later in people's lives. 

In addition, he or she gets to deal with the slowly failing state or Pakistan, the failed state of Afghanistan, the collapse of the Middle East as we have known it, the unraveling of the European Union, a petro-cash rich Russia and the rise of China.  And on top of that, he or she will get up every morning and review a Threat Matrix that literally ages you on a daily basis. 

On top of all that, he or she will get to say to governors and mayors from around the country that there is nothing the Federal government can do to help them with their fiscal "issues."  They'll have to deal with Medicaid and unfunded pension liabilities and education shortfalls all by themselves.

Gingrich on healthcare

I think Newt Gingrich is an incredibly bright buy, with all sorts of baggage.

This is common sense ...

Gingrich said he would prefer a system that preserved the current Medicare program and also created a private alternative.

I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said. “I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare solution for seniors."

Nepalese sherpa reaches the top of Mt. Everest - for the 21st time

Here's his website -

Apa Sherpa

And here's a short piece from Outside magazine

Apa Sherpa summited Everest on Wednesday for the 21st time, breaking his own world record of 20 summits, the Alpinist reports. The 51 year old first reached the summit in 1990 and has stood atop the highest point on earth nearly every year since. This marks the fourth consecutive year Sherpa has summited with The Eco Everest Expedition, a team that aims to remove garbage, debris, and waste from Everest. This year they hope to remove 11,000 pounds of trash.

I'm happy when i get up and back from this! A Sugarloaf Mountain Walk

Washington Post editorial on healthcare reform

Interesting.

THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET to controlling health-care costs, whether in public programs such as Medicare or in the private market. But two useful tools are leveraging the forces of competition among providers and making certain that consumers bear some of the cost of the health care they consume. Democrats relied on these principles in crafting last year’s health-care bill, eliciting Republican jeers. House Republicans have included them in their Medicare reform plan — where they are jeered with equal ferocity by Democrats.