Dadgummit!

In 1964 I entered FSU as a freshman and was immediately caught up in the excitement of college. Specifically I was caught up in football, it dominated the campus culture. Professors talked about it and the kids were all proud to be a part of it. You see we were winning big for the first time ever. The first three games were shut outs. The fourth game was at Doak Campbell Stadium (our campus) against 5^th ranked Kentucky. We held em scoreless until the fourth quarter and won by 40 points. On my birthday the hated Gators came to Doak for the first time ever. We had never beaten them and they were arrogant and boastful and soooooooooooo obnoxious. We beat them that year and I was hooked for life. I thought geez this is great, we have a winner here this is the way it will always be.

Only I was wrong. It was good for several more years then coach Bill Peterson went to the NFL to coach at Houston (and failed miserably). Our program went into a tailspin and 1972-74 we won only 4 ball games out of 30. Then this guy from West Virginia named Bowden came to town. Things changed! Again we had a winning program and his brand of football was very fun to be a part of. He had incredible success with numbers that may never again be equaled. Like 14 straight years of a top five finish 2 of them national championships. In 1999 we went wire to wire ranked number 1, never been done before or since.  That team was so good I actually bet a guy we would do it. He gave me $100 bucks in August and I agreed to give him a hundred for each game we lost. He just knew he had a sucker bet, and he did, except we didn’t loose.

Fast forward to 2004, all good things do end and the program slipped into mediocrity once more and it was time for the 80 year old Bowden to step down. Many people associated with his teams have enriched their lives considerably.  Many of them came out to send him off with their love and admiration at this years Gator Bowl..almost 85,000.

I went to his first Gator Bowl in 1964 (he was an assistant)  and his last one in 2010. They were both exciting, but this one was very special. I walked with hundreds of folks a little in a prearranged walk from the team bus to the stadium last Friday and watched all the former players and admirers pay their respects. I watched as Jimbo Fisher lowered his head in humility as he walked with Bobby past the crowd and a tear ran down his face. He is replacing a legend and he has handled the transition with style and grace and done a fine job of offensive coaching in a difficult head coach in waiting period.

The Bowl game was a love fest for Bobby young and old, male and female, Seminoles and Mountaineers (where he coached immediately before coming to FSU). Not a dry eye in the place I suspect at the end, when FSU came out with a final victory to send the old soldier packing. Coach Bowden made some mistakes in his later years, he is human after all. But there is not a finer, more decent guy around that I know of. And you can ask guys like Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks and they will say the same thing. They and many others give back to their local communities in many ways including foundations that help economically disadvantaged folks.

We love you man……….dadgummit.

Happy 2010

No War On Terror

Nothing the current leaders are doing addresses the prime need of our country today. They are focused on winning elections and playing partisan politics as usual and completely ignore the Homeland Security needs of our citizens. Obama set the tone to disavow the existence of the terminology “war on terror.” Let’s call it something else and not spend any money on upgrading our homeland security. It’s just not popular with the liberals that elected me he seems to shout at every corner. It was W’s thang after all so it must be wrong. It’s not about rhetoric Mr. President it’s about enforcing the laws that are on the books and allocating budget to provide the proper screening devices. Congress is worse. It’s so funny, we pass a bill for conference that will cover more people for health care than ever before, it has dominated the American Culture (driven by the MSM who have also conveniently downplayed the need for homeland security). Someone tell me how we care for dead people blown up needlessly in aircraft because our leaders have their heads up their arses. If not for defective equipment several hundred innocent civilians would again be dead needlessly. But the President stays in Hawaii and congress stays home. Damn, it’s just maddening.

The system did not work!

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/12/complete_text_of_us_rep_pete_h.html

FSU’s Defense Needs Devine Providence

This is too good to not pass on. For the uninitiated FSU’s football program has fallen on lean times. The stands are no longer full and our defense can’t stop the worst offense in the country from scoring at will. So the disillusioned fan base are making up something to have fun with. The following is purloined from a site that I often visit.

Don’t tell anyone about this as I may be banned from the site for revealing the secret handshake.

“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me some defensive ends
My friends are all Gators, I must make amends
Our offense is clicking but we just can’t defend
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me some defensive ends

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a monster DT
When Jenny Craig showed up, she ruined our D
My wife could play nose guard, and she wears a size 3
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a monster DT

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me what I need the most
A defensive backfield that isn’t called toast
A Pop Warner player can defend a simple post
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me what I need the most

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me some defensive ends
My friends are all Gators, I must make amends
Our offense is clicking, but we just can’t defend
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me some defensive ends”

End-Of- Life Medicine

Having lived through several very personal ends of life I feel qualified to comment. I have seen different life ends with vastly different medical costs. What the country needs is a thorough vetting of this, and related issues. Unfortunately as this article points out Americans don’t want to talk about it. Even if we pass some watered down health care “reform” the end of life issue will not be adequately addressed because we don’t talk about it as a nation. I have seen Medicade prolong the life of a dying woman and another just sit in a chair and die, with virtually no additional expenses. My wife and I have done almost all we can do to make those hard decisions and prepare wills with powers of attorney and yet if catastrophe hits us we are not prepared to pull the plug.

Much of this debate is left off the table. It is a reflection of our cultural mores. 150 years ago people died in their homes, with their families gathered around, when it was time it was just time. Today many people are in assisted living (joke) facilities or nursing homes and the system picks up the expense instead of family. That part is not political it is cultural. As long as we continue to deemphasize familial and personal responsibility and accountability as a culture the end of life issues will rage on.

Here are a few of the pertinent paragraphs from this article.

“Almost a third of the money spent by Medicare—about $66.8 billion a year—goes to chronically ill patients in the last two years of life”

“Studies show that about 70 percent of people want to die at home—but that about half die in hospitals.”

 “Our medical system does everything it can to encourage hope. And American health care has been near miraculous—the envy of the world—in its capacity to develop new lifesaving and life-enhancing treatments. But death can be delayed only so long, and sometimes the wait is grim and degrading. The hospice ideal recognized that for many people, quiet and dignity—and loving care and good painkillers—are really what’s called for.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/215291/page/1

Madmen

http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

For anyone who has not yet seen Madmen on AMC you have a treat instore for you when you catch it. It is very sophisticated black comedy about life in a Madison Ave Ad Agency in the 60’s. It is faithful to costume and period sets and the American culture of the day. The scripts are riviting and the characters are well developed. It isn’t often that multiple characters can all hold our attention like these can.

It refelcts what was happening in America as different clients come through the doors. This years (1963) hot stories so far have been diet cola, bicardi, Israeli Tourism, Pan Am, etc.

It is the first cable show to win an Emmy for best drama. 

It’s great with DVR just breeze right through the commercials.

 

 

The Healing Of America by T R Reid

I listened to T R Reid talk about this book on NPR as I drove back from the panhandle last Monday. He seemed a pretty interesting person and had a folksy engaging style that focused on healthcare systems around the world. In essence what he said was the main element that prevents the US from having affordable healthcare is profit. Almost the entire non-government run system is profit driven. When you think about it, our healthcare reflects our national culture’s history…..The business of America is now, and always has been, business. No other industrialized nation has the profit issue in their system and no one else has the mal practice premiums our doctors have to carry. In most other countries doctors education is free, hospitals don’t make profits and neither do private insurance companies. But there is a more basic issue that screams to be addressed which I will come to presently.

 

I read the book, it was not as engaging as his interview, I was looking to find answers and proposals, and instead what I found was comparative analysis, which gets more than a little boring. It is sometimes interesting what some countries have in place. France for example, has a medical ID Card that carries all individual medical records on it. A patient walks in and hands the card to a doctor who puts it in a scanner and the entire medical history is available…….the carte vitale vastly reduces administrative overhead and costs.

 

Overall the book is too rambling and not graphic enough to use as good concise data. Reid does hit on what I think is the fundamental disconnect with our national debate which is to say that the debate is putting the cart before the horse. In all other democratic industrialized nations, before enacting whichever form of universal coverage they have now, they had a national debate on the ethics of healthcare. He concludes in chapter 12 The First Question…..”What are our basic ethical values? Do we believe that every American has a right to health care when he needs it? After that question is resolved we can move on to designing a health care system that works for all Americans. When we get to that stage we can draw on a world of ideas and experience—–all the lessons we’ve learned from health care systems in other industrialized democracies.”

 

I agree. To effect universal change there must be consensus from the people, clearly we don’t have that today.

 

Here is another review for consideration.

 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/23/RVBE19431R.DTL&type=health

By 2058 No One In America WIll Have Health Insurance

We are a nation of talking points, polarized into opposite camps, fed by the media’s coverage of the most radical concepts that bungling politicians cloak themselves with in order to maintain their seats of power and dole out their patronage.. Those in the highest positions are the worst. It really doesn’t matter which party is in power they are both corrupt. Good men leave Washington in disgust; those remaining are left to fight over the spoils of war. Let’s look at Obama’s piece in the op-ed section of today’s  New York Times, it is a CLASSIC example of deception. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html?pagewanted=2&em

 

In this article Obama lists 4 reasons why we need reform.

 

“First, if you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of high-quality, affordable coverage for yourself and your family — coverage that will stay with you whether you move, change your job or lose your job.”

 

Honestly we can not forecast will happen to the private sectors business model once the public sector enters the entire arena. Now the government is involved only with a small % through Medicare, Medicade and  the VA. No one mentions that these carry a considerable tax to the working population and that additional large numbers will require offsetting additional tax which will actually make the “affordable” coverage more expensive to everyone whether they use it or not.

 

Second reform will finally bring skyrocketing health care costs under control.

 

I heard today on meet the press that there are 87 new programs proposed in the public sector portion of “reformers” that will create the need for 150,000 NEW federal employees to manage them. I fail to see how that will bring efficiencies, seems to me it creates bigger more expensive government. Even if that number is different one can not start massive new programs without bureaucracy to administer them.

 

Third,    by making Medicare more efficient,………….see above paragraph.

 

Fourth reform will provide every American with some basic consumer protections that will finally hold insurance companies accountable. A 2007 national survey actually shows that insurance companies discriminated against more than 12 million Americans in the previous three years because they had a pre-existing illness or condition. The companies either refused to cover the person, refused to cover a specific illness or condition or charged a higher premium.

 

This kind of benefit will obviously drive premiums and taxes up for everyone. The only way insurance companies can afford to cover all catastrophic illness is to increase deductibles just like they have done with homeowners insurance because of  hurricane losses. Catastrophic illnesses could have the same impact on health insurers driving them out of business and leaving the choice option a solid myth.

 

He continues:

“Most important, we will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups, preventive care and screening tests like mammograms and colonoscopies. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer on the front end. It makes sense, it saves lives and it can also save money.”

 

That’s already happening, just walk into any of these specialists offices and see how many people are there. and they ALL have insurance, there is no reform here only BS.

 

“If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day.”

 

LOL this is the biggest misleading statement of the democrats “talking points” if you do the math on that it means that in 48.9 years no one in America will have insurance. It is insulting for the President to make such bullshit statements. Every one of the insiders mouths this platitude as if we are too stupid to understand it’s BS. Obviously most get coverage back because only 15% don’t have it (and that number is also a complex #).

 

(It is only fair to point out that most of us know also that there is no such thing as a death panel to kill off grandma. That BS is equally insulting and should not be a point of debate, just ain’t goanna happen, and to characterize Obama as evil because of this misstatement is to be reckless with the public trust).  

 

Obama concludes with:

 

“In the end, this isn’t about politics.”

 

Say again fella? It’s ALL about politics and it shows how little anyone in Washington really cares about the health of American people.

Conservatism In America

Several of my wordpress friends profess they do not understand the conservative mind. Perhaps it is simply that they do not wish to. Perhaps it is becuase they brand conservatives into one demonic image and close their minds to individual reasoning just following the group speak of the day.

Whatever the reason, conservatism in America comes in all shapes and sizes as we see from this dudes message. I am not familiar with his personal history, he speaks from the experience of being an American who seems to love his country which is always refreshing for me.

Health Insurance Reform: A Rush to Judgment

The rise of health insurance is largely a twentieth century development and much of that has occurred after WW II. So it’s a relatively new phenomenon. We don’t have a long track record of its success or failure as compared to the issues framed in our bill of rights. Everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I missed the part where it says health care is a right and should be provided by government. And btw what’s the frigging hurry to get this done overnight all of a sudden?

 

US Census numbers show that roughly 84% of U S Citizens have health care of some combination of private and public origin. So 16% may fall into the category of being uninsured for health coverage. So if I understand those numbers correctly we are going to reform health care because of the need of 16% of our population. Will those 16% all have life threatening emergences’ next year?

 

We are talking about setting in motion competing public and private providers with the tax payers ultimately picking up the tab. All kinds of pabulum are being peddled to cover up the facts. Here is what I am hearing

 

1. You can keep the coverage that you have.
2. It will cost less than you already spend.
3. We are already paying for the uninsured through emergency care costs passed on to the consumers.
4. Reform provides a free market approach.
5. SMB’s will still have a choice in offering private versus public options to employees.

 

Honestly none of those statements can be proven and quite possibly none of them are true.

 

1. You can keep it as long as it’s offered; no one has a clue what the dynamics of reform will have on the current providers who may well find reason to alter their existing coverage’s due to changing business conditions. Many of us have worked all our lives to achieve what we currently have and do not want any change whatsoever. Those voices are being trampled by the mob for change.  
2. Same answer…….if you change the tax plan to finance health care for the uninsured it will cost the tax payer more money on top of what we currently are paying.
3. Actually some hospitals show that profit can still be made while providing indigent care, it just takes great management.
4. A free market is not one that is run and controlled by government (who is printing new money by the trainload).
5. Duh! They will opt for the option they pay taxes on in a heart beat.

 

Obama is rushing headlong with the Country’s health and well being at risk on this issue and it is totally unnecessary for the vast majority of the population. It is absurdly political! All for 16% of the electorate. It is terribly short sighted and irresponsible and in the long run may cost Democrats the votes they are so desperate to pick up in the midterm elections and beyond.

Pinocchio II

Once again the democrats demonstrate absurdity in their political “catfighting” (and I mean that in the MOST defamatory way possible). They broke a big whooptedo story that the CIA lied to the Congress and that Cheney violated the law in ordering the CIA’s program covered up. Well folks here it is on the front page of the by god New York Times. 

Ready?

Bush & Chenny wanted to kill Al Qaeda leaders anyway they could and the CIA kept trying to figure out a way to do that. For 8 years. OMG…………….

OK Eric Holder go get em boy. Let’s see ya prosecute that.

 Wink wink

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/us/14intel.html?_r=1&ref=us