The pharmaceutical companies will resist legalizing marijuana as much as the drug cartels do. However, there are many reasons that smoking would be more affordable and lower insurance costs. I can figure no reason to force dying patients to live with torturing pain rather than allow them to have a pain reliever that doctors say works for them. Fourteen states have enacted laws that legalized medical marijuana.
Apparently more baby boomers are smoking marijuana rather than reach for anti-depressants and pain killers. What could be bad about this other than not having to make the pharmaceutical industry and their share holders richer? The drug cartels will have to find another business to get into. We can be assured that crime will always be there.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
BIPARTISANSHIP WITH REPUBLICANS? YOU MUST BE JOKING!
Watching some of the HealthCare Summit, I was left wondering on what planet the constituents live about whom the Republicans are speaking and think they are representing. They are not the 98% of the working and unemployed Americans making barely trying to survive with their families. Since the Republicans have effectively cut out a middle class, they need to watch themselves on the replays....they will be surprised at how ludicrous they seem. As far as I can see, they ought to be giving some of their salary back...they certainly aren't earning it. They haven't a clue about what people living of $40,000 with a family are doing. If you want to see what the House and Senate earn, click here.
It was a pleasure to see Obama in action. When John McCain talked about how unfair it was that Florida was getting such an unequal handout share, he clearly expected a defense. Instead, Obama just smiled at him and said, "You have a good point there." McCain looked ready to go on with more on his point, blinked, then looked like a deflated balloon.
James Clyburn, Dem. Senator from S. Carolina, was a guest on the Daily Show. When Stewart asked if people were cordial when the cameras weren't on, he described that everyone was polite and collegial throughout the day and that Obama talked considerably with Republicans on breaks. It just didn't look like it on the evening news and the talk shows. How nice to have a senator confirm the distortions the media presents.
Let's hope it is really clear that the Republicans just want to sabotage the Bill and let's get on with 'full steam ahead' on it without them.
It was a pleasure to see Obama in action. When John McCain talked about how unfair it was that Florida was getting such an unequal handout share, he clearly expected a defense. Instead, Obama just smiled at him and said, "You have a good point there." McCain looked ready to go on with more on his point, blinked, then looked like a deflated balloon.
James Clyburn, Dem. Senator from S. Carolina, was a guest on the Daily Show. When Stewart asked if people were cordial when the cameras weren't on, he described that everyone was polite and collegial throughout the day and that Obama talked considerably with Republicans on breaks. It just didn't look like it on the evening news and the talk shows. How nice to have a senator confirm the distortions the media presents.
Let's hope it is really clear that the Republicans just want to sabotage the Bill and let's get on with 'full steam ahead' on it without them.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
SECURITY AND LIFE ARE ON WHOSE PRIORITY LIST?
The same people who value life to the point of wanting no one to abort, though a child may die shortly after birth, and though they are often if favor of letting people die with no health insurance, or even starve to death. There are somewhere around 22,000 government workers in embassies around the world. There are many more children who need better education in the US in order to have marketable skills. There are many malnourished people in the US. Yet 80 billion was the figure I heard for the new American Embassy being built in London.
It makes me wonder at those who wanted to scrap health care totally because they thought there was a priority system. Unfortunately there is, but not the one that the grassroots fighters misinterpret. It is not the death panel which is often described by people who have not read the Bill.. It is, rather, that the choice to live or die is not made of the basis of age or even illness. In the US it is based on how much money you can afford to pay the CEOs of health insurance companies for the right to win their lottery on life. They may choose, even if you have insurance, to cut you off for many reasons you won't understand.
Rachel Maddow described the current Health Care system beautifully tonight on MSNBC. Insurance companies are 'for-profit' businesses. They are not altruistic (other than obscene paychecks to their management). They are, after all, just running a business to pay salaries and throw a few crumbs to their shareholders.
It makes me wonder at those who wanted to scrap health care totally because they thought there was a priority system. Unfortunately there is, but not the one that the grassroots fighters misinterpret. It is not the death panel which is often described by people who have not read the Bill.. It is, rather, that the choice to live or die is not made of the basis of age or even illness. In the US it is based on how much money you can afford to pay the CEOs of health insurance companies for the right to win their lottery on life. They may choose, even if you have insurance, to cut you off for many reasons you won't understand.
Rachel Maddow described the current Health Care system beautifully tonight on MSNBC. Insurance companies are 'for-profit' businesses. They are not altruistic (other than obscene paychecks to their management). They are, after all, just running a business to pay salaries and throw a few crumbs to their shareholders.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
THE MAJOR QUESTION OF THE DAY
Is our government broken? That is the question most in everyone's mind today. Allowing the obstructionists to win would be like allowing the one ring 'to rule the world' in the Lord of the Rings. Power, in the manner in which the Republicans are wielding by their passive aggressive, pathological performance is what has stood in the way of progress in the past and present. The naysayers, those fearful of change, the fear of loss off control, those who would stop HealthCare for millions because of their own misguided rule that women should not have choice over their own procreation, and all the single minded gridlocking going on in Washington today by so few are but a few of the elements keeping the country divided and failing.
How should the average public understand 'teabagging' as compared to 'tea partying'? Newt Gingrich should be ashamed of the ploy he uses to make people think that wanting what is best for everyone in the country makes one a Socialist. Cheney has been caught in lies many times. How long will he be protected? His fall would not break the economy of our country. Why is he not brought to task for his sins? Instead he is lauded as a public servant. In reality, the public has been his servant.
What is uppermost in the minds of many with whom I speak is whether Tarantino will continue to rob the country of the right to vote on bills, or whether the gridlock can be broken so that the 290 stalled bills can be voted on in up or down fashion. How is it that so many un-Americans have been voted into office as Representatives and Senators? The perks and reimbursements of those bodies should be revised and brought more into proper perspective as to the little worth of the jobs they are doing. Lining one's own pockets is not why CEOs or Legislators should be so greatly reimbursed.
Lastly today, while I didn't like anything said Scott Brown said he stood for during his campaign, I must applaud that he voted against his pre-election rhetoric and voted in favor of the wishes of the majority of Massachusetts constituents, rather than acting as a partisan sheep along with so many colleagues.
How should the average public understand 'teabagging' as compared to 'tea partying'? Newt Gingrich should be ashamed of the ploy he uses to make people think that wanting what is best for everyone in the country makes one a Socialist. Cheney has been caught in lies many times. How long will he be protected? His fall would not break the economy of our country. Why is he not brought to task for his sins? Instead he is lauded as a public servant. In reality, the public has been his servant.
What is uppermost in the minds of many with whom I speak is whether Tarantino will continue to rob the country of the right to vote on bills, or whether the gridlock can be broken so that the 290 stalled bills can be voted on in up or down fashion. How is it that so many un-Americans have been voted into office as Representatives and Senators? The perks and reimbursements of those bodies should be revised and brought more into proper perspective as to the little worth of the jobs they are doing. Lining one's own pockets is not why CEOs or Legislators should be so greatly reimbursed.
Lastly today, while I didn't like anything said Scott Brown said he stood for during his campaign, I must applaud that he voted against his pre-election rhetoric and voted in favor of the wishes of the majority of Massachusetts constituents, rather than acting as a partisan sheep along with so many colleagues.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
PEOPLE VOTED TOM COBURN IN TO DO WHAT?????
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma announced that he is happy with the gridlock because it keeps votes from being passed. I readily admit I'm a bit naive about just what it is that Senators are supposed to do, but I thought passing bills to make this a better country was why they were given office. Silly me!
Even though Americans believe the government is broken, Coburn's statement made clear that it is not broken but has been hibernating for far too long. Like the sleeping behemoth the Republicans would like to keep it...no spending, no change will keep us just where we are. Again, it seems to me that the majority of the country has made clear that is an unacceptable place.
The Senate will live in their medically insured cocoon, enjoying all their perks, continuing to unpatriotically disparaging our duly elected President, and quote what the public wants by cutting short the process and guessing they want what the good senator wants since they elected him. It saves them from having the tedious chore of reading polls.
With so many of our citizens unemployed or too busy to search for accurate news on the state of the nation, we seem to have a number of Legislators with a similar head set. Is there some way they can be 'outed' so the voting public can see them as they are and vote them out of office in the next election? If the spammers can reach everyone...can't we hire a few of them to get the truth to the people. Clearly we have no existing media that can or is doing it currently or consistently.
Monday, February 22, 2010
CAN ANYONE OTHER THAN TIGER KNOW IF HE IS SINCERE?
If it didn't irritate me so much, I might find it amusing that people seem to be convinced they, and only they, know whether Tiger is sincere in his apology. I've heard every rationalization possible. 'He is only doing it because it must be one of the steps in his rehabilitation program'; 'he doesn't sound or look sincere',' he is just saying it because he knows the public wants to hear it', 'if he were really sincere he wouldn't have needed to read from a script' ad nauseum.
Why do people leap so quickly to condemn a man, whether he is sincere or not, who has so many people relying on him? The PGA is begging for him to be back in games because he gave so much pleasure to so many people watching him play (witness more spectators at tournaments; more money earned); he has a foundation with a large staff and a large personal staff; he has children and a marriage he and his wife may wish to work on to salvage. If you were to ask any of these busybodies if they would qualify as voyeurs, they probably would become irate at the inference. Yet, why do they allow the media blabbermouths to spend hours of high paid time guessing on this man's emotions, relationships and everything else that should remain between him and those closely involved in relationship to him.
The argument that when you are in public life, you abdicate your privacy belies common decency and the Golden Rule...'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. With or without belief in religion, the Golden Rule has a very important place as a guide to my life. I do not need to look into the keyholes of other people's lives unless they are requesting therapy. Perhaps people with no boundaries of their own have always been gossips. Magazines and gossip papers, as one finds in Supermarkets near the checkouts, clearly cause many to salivate when they hear things about VIPs that they must, in denying their own better judgment, realize cannot possibly be true.
These must be a variety of those who, despite media visual and servivor verbal evidence, believe there was no Holocaust under the Nazis; that man never reached the Moon but that the moon landing was staged on a Hollywood set; and they might follow self-appointed Reverend Jones and drink the KoolAid for a better life.
There are the Teabaggers, who are so lacking in trust of science and anyone in authority today, that they will believe the snake oil salesmen of past politics, radio hosts who insist they are only entertainers yet speak otherwise; or any fool who will find someone in government to blame. Leaders are not those who only to criticize but those who give profoundly thought-out advice and workable suggestions for putting it in place.
What makes people so certain that they can tell what someone is thinking just by looking at them? The best liars are sociopaths because they are so convincing. They can be so because they have no guilt about who they are harming, thus their only goal is to convince
Frankly, I do not support the public and media skewering of people for personal actions. For Tiger, I will allow that many of us feel disappointment when we look for a model for the young in this country and we see so few. From where I sit, Tiger did far less injury to his countrymen than the Bush administration did, yet seems to be getting equal media time When will people learn their own boundaries and realize they are being fed this gossip to make money off the foolish who foster it? Do they really want to make the billionaires who monopolized our media even richer and give them more control over the propaganda they feed us?
Why do people leap so quickly to condemn a man, whether he is sincere or not, who has so many people relying on him? The PGA is begging for him to be back in games because he gave so much pleasure to so many people watching him play (witness more spectators at tournaments; more money earned); he has a foundation with a large staff and a large personal staff; he has children and a marriage he and his wife may wish to work on to salvage. If you were to ask any of these busybodies if they would qualify as voyeurs, they probably would become irate at the inference. Yet, why do they allow the media blabbermouths to spend hours of high paid time guessing on this man's emotions, relationships and everything else that should remain between him and those closely involved in relationship to him.
The argument that when you are in public life, you abdicate your privacy belies common decency and the Golden Rule...'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. With or without belief in religion, the Golden Rule has a very important place as a guide to my life. I do not need to look into the keyholes of other people's lives unless they are requesting therapy. Perhaps people with no boundaries of their own have always been gossips. Magazines and gossip papers, as one finds in Supermarkets near the checkouts, clearly cause many to salivate when they hear things about VIPs that they must, in denying their own better judgment, realize cannot possibly be true.
These must be a variety of those who, despite media visual and servivor verbal evidence, believe there was no Holocaust under the Nazis; that man never reached the Moon but that the moon landing was staged on a Hollywood set; and they might follow self-appointed Reverend Jones and drink the KoolAid for a better life.
There are the Teabaggers, who are so lacking in trust of science and anyone in authority today, that they will believe the snake oil salesmen of past politics, radio hosts who insist they are only entertainers yet speak otherwise; or any fool who will find someone in government to blame. Leaders are not those who only to criticize but those who give profoundly thought-out advice and workable suggestions for putting it in place.
What makes people so certain that they can tell what someone is thinking just by looking at them? The best liars are sociopaths because they are so convincing. They can be so because they have no guilt about who they are harming, thus their only goal is to convince
Frankly, I do not support the public and media skewering of people for personal actions. For Tiger, I will allow that many of us feel disappointment when we look for a model for the young in this country and we see so few. From where I sit, Tiger did far less injury to his countrymen than the Bush administration did, yet seems to be getting equal media time When will people learn their own boundaries and realize they are being fed this gossip to make money off the foolish who foster it? Do they really want to make the billionaires who monopolized our media even richer and give them more control over the propaganda they feed us?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
NEW INSIGHT
Question: Why are retirees so slow to clean out the basement, attic or garage?
Answer: They know that as soon as they do, one of their adult kids will want to store stuff there..
When I received the above from a friend, it made me stop, not only to rationalize my procrastination but to see the wisdom of not rushing to take care of everything that people tell me needs doing. Aside from the people who are always giving decorating hints, my cleaning woman who finds it easier when there are fewer items on surfaces and tells me the house looks so much better (as in after Xmas when I have not yet put house decorations back).
Indeed, my preference has always been for simplicity except that 'things' are like people to me...and that disqualifies them as clutter. Another reason I probably won't leave a spotless house when I go is that I, like most seniors, do not want to spend the rest of my days cleaning up messes. I gave at the office and everywhere else most of my life. Maybe there is a sense of balance or justice in there. I have never known an elder to die with a clean house. I suppose that says something I should understand...and am now beginning to think about. The answer came as a shock to me. It is: 'I don't really care what people think of me when I am dead...I will never know!' Antecedent relatives who left so much for me to clean up didn't worry about it beforehand and, unlikely, after death. I see no reason to reinvent this wheel...
So as long as I am paying my bills and enjoy being surrounded by a life of hobbies and 'stuff' as George Carlin used to say, I will play with as much of my time as I can fit in...with or without playmates, though I can usually find quite a few willing to go off and have fun rather than continuing to peel their nose on the grindstone for no real purpose in life but to have a neat house.
Answer: They know that as soon as they do, one of their adult kids will want to store stuff there..
When I received the above from a friend, it made me stop, not only to rationalize my procrastination but to see the wisdom of not rushing to take care of everything that people tell me needs doing. Aside from the people who are always giving decorating hints, my cleaning woman who finds it easier when there are fewer items on surfaces and tells me the house looks so much better (as in after Xmas when I have not yet put house decorations back).
Indeed, my preference has always been for simplicity except that 'things' are like people to me...and that disqualifies them as clutter. Another reason I probably won't leave a spotless house when I go is that I, like most seniors, do not want to spend the rest of my days cleaning up messes. I gave at the office and everywhere else most of my life. Maybe there is a sense of balance or justice in there. I have never known an elder to die with a clean house. I suppose that says something I should understand...and am now beginning to think about. The answer came as a shock to me. It is: 'I don't really care what people think of me when I am dead...I will never know!' Antecedent relatives who left so much for me to clean up didn't worry about it beforehand and, unlikely, after death. I see no reason to reinvent this wheel...
So as long as I am paying my bills and enjoy being surrounded by a life of hobbies and 'stuff' as George Carlin used to say, I will play with as much of my time as I can fit in...with or without playmates, though I can usually find quite a few willing to go off and have fun rather than continuing to peel their nose on the grindstone for no real purpose in life but to have a neat house.
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