Tort Reform Already a Fact (in Texas and Mississippi)

While politicians rant about the need for tort reform in our efforts to fix the current American healthcare system, the states of Texas and Mississippi have already enacted legislation, with the results that doctors are being attracted by the thousands to practice there.

An editorial appeared today in Investor’s Business Daily, revealing the little-known facts of how the situation has been improving in these two states. Read the article “Tort Reformed” here:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=506980

Investor’s Business Daily editorials can now be found as part of “Investors.com”. The site also publishes excellent daily political cartoons by  prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez.

Although IBD is predominantly a conservative publication, it includes every day at least one editorial by a writer identified as being “On the Left,” to present an alternative view.

 

There is Something New Under the Sun

The Deep South Texas sun has been brutal this year. While other parts of the state have had their share of thunderstorms this summer, we here on the Mexican border have not seen rain for 3 months or more–so long ago that I can’t rightly remember when the Blessed Wetness last kissed our parched earth.

We are used to a yearly drought, but not such a long one. Fortunately we got enough rain last year from the hurricanes that the river still supplies us with sufficient water for normal household use and irrigation for the crops. We don’t wash our cars often and we water the lawn and plants at night.

However, my friend and I, who are both on the Board of Trustees (BOT) of our small church, got the idea that our dusty building and grounds had looked pathetic and uncared-for long enough. We brought our proposals before the BOT, who ‘blessed’ it. We obtained bids from local contractors, and made our decisions. So, though there was a recession going on, what had started out as replacing a contrary fluorescent light fixture in the Women’s Restroom with a standard fixture that would take a “curly” fluorescent bulb, soon blossomed into a full-blown project which included exterior repainting of our buildings, removing trash-gathering hedges from around the church, landscaping the grounds with drought-resistant shrubs and flowers at the base of the sanctuary, and placing desert plants in two concrete-curbed islands on the front lawn.

The sprinkler system is still undergoing repair, but the plants are in the ground, which is covered with black fabric and small brown-and-tan river rocks. As a final touch, we had a professional janitorial service come in and strip the old wax off the tile floors, scrub, seal, and re-wax them; then they cleaned the carpets and stained-glass window panels.

We have a new concrete access ramp at the main entrance, and a newly restored utility ramp for the Fellowship Hall. Our new butter-tan and dark green buildings with their red and yellow ixoras in front, and the dwarf oleanders at the side and back, invite people to come in and worship in the cool, quiet, and clean atmosphere.

Another thing we are happy about is that we were able to provide work for several crews of men who had been having a slow year. And the money to do it was provided when we needed it. This gave us a chance to put our belief to the test, and we have seen the reward.

Front corner with new plants

 

Hard to Believe, but I Did It!!

After Memory Upgrade

This morning I finally took on the task of installing a matched pair of 512 MB memory cards in my 6-year-old Dell desktop. The CPU has been trying to function on its original 256 MB all this time, and beginning to freeze continually these past few months, as I demanded more from it. So, armed with all the information I could find, and a grounding wristband that attached to the metal case of the CPU, I disconnected everything and opened her up. (This was not as easy as it looked, since I had never opened it before.)

Lying on its side, and full of bundled wires, the working space inside the tower was cramped, but not impossible to manage. It did take some effort to settle the new cards into place, but finally the clips came up to secure them, and I knew I had succeeded.  Next, I removed the dustballs that had collected on the fan filter and  everywhere else that I could reach with a big, soft cosmetics brush. And finally, I got the side panel back on correctly and reconnected everything.

Then the test came. I turned on my newly-upgraded computer. The message on the black screen told me that changes to the hardware had been detected. I was directed to press F1 to continue, or F2 for setup. I chose F1, and much to my relief and delight, the machine booted normally–and quickly! I find that my programs now load faster and perform their functions with more speed and energy. Windows Media Player does not stop and start, but I still have to wait for Youtube videos to buffer every few seconds. (I don’t know WHAT I have to do to fix that!!)

But I am happy and proud that I was able to do this job by myself, at my age (almost 71). And I say, if I can do it, almost anyone can! HOORAY!

 

“You COULD Care less?”

How MUCH less could you care? A little? A lot? If you could care less, but you don’t, then it’s likely that you really do care an unspecified amount…which is not at all what you meant to convey! However, if you find it possible to care so little, and the object of your [not] caring so unimportant and unworthy that you are able to hold it in no regard whatever–in fact, ignore it totally– except, of course,  to mention your total disregard of it–then you may actually be unable to care less! And this is what you really meant to convey.

 But because the vast majority of people in the USA, either from ignorance, laziness, or the wish to follow current trends, are heard to say (with a flippant air), “I could care less,”  you parrot what everyone says, not realizing  that it expresses the opposite of what you mean. “So what?”, you say. “Everybody knows what it means, which is that I really don’t care. Nobody cares, man”…except for the few of us who still have respect for the English language and take pride in expressing ourselves correctly.

Oh……the correct way to say it is: “I couldn’t care less!”

 

Hello? Anybody care?

 

 

Susan Boyle Sings “Memory” from “Cats”

I don’t receive the BBC channel at home on my TV, but I was aware that Susan Boyle was singing on “Britain’s Got Talent” again this past Saturday. So I looked for a post with a YouTube video in it, and I didn’t have to search long. There is one featured today on WordPress.

Although the audio is not sync’ed with the video in the one I watched, the entire performance is captured, from the initial “butterflies” (a slight bobble) when Susan’s hand moves momentarily to her abdomen, to the triumphant final chorus, where in a higher range, the true power of her voice brings tears…

Oh, yes! I think it’s time the “Scottish Spinster”, as she is sometimes dubbed, got her chance. Nothing to hold her back now!

 

Back in the Saddle (seat) Again

I can’t say why today should be any different from the three other days this year that I mounted my exercise bike with determination to begin again.  (It’s Memorial Day Monday in the USA, by the way.) Maybe it was because I awoke on my back and it required an abdominal “crunch” to arise from that position. However, I noticed that I still had sufficient strength in these muscles to elicit a contraction, so I tried nine more crunches. “Whoopee! All is not lost yet!” I think to myself. ”Perhaps I can save what’s left of my aging body and manage to hold off the wheelchair and the Zimmer frame a while longer.”
So before breakfast, I pedaled 15 minutes this morning. That’s 15:05 minutes, 2.02 miles, and 182.6 calories, to be exact! At the very least, I expect my knees to feel better for the rest of the day.
We’ll see how long I can stick with it. I’m not making any vows or declarations…

Hello, old friend!

 

2012 PREDICTIONS AND THE WEB BOT:A Rant

I was watching the History Channel tonight. They started out talking about 2012, the Mayan calendar, and the Hopi Indian prophecy that the end of the 4th World was coming with storms, earthquakes, and *gasp!* global warming, and then there would be the beginning of the 5th World. The program mentioned the Sibyl (or Sybil), Oracle of Cumae, and the Priestess at Delphi, who may have hallucinated because of the ethylene gas rising through cracks in the cave floors where they went into their trances.
Also mentioned was Merlin (Welsh Myrrden) of legendary King Arthur’s time, and the Revelation of St. John in The Bible, the I Ching, and some others that I have forgotten. Funny thing is, the History Channel seems to have taken their material straight off a blog called “2012 Predictions.” http://2012-predictions-review.blogspot.com/2008/01/filled-with-breath-of-apollo.html
Where it starts to get creepy is when they say the Hopi prophesy mentions the world being covered by a spider web in the 20th and 21st century. It is easy to relate this to the Internet–the World Wide Web. Further creepiness comes from something called the Web Bot, originally created as an investment tool, with robotic agents called “spiders” crawling over all the sites on the Web and collecting data on what is being reported, talked about, written about, and what is selling. After this, they moved from marketing and economic trends to predicting natural disasters, and then they wanted to see if they could use the Web Bot as a predictive tool by gaining access to the “collective consciousness of the world!”
Does anyone see how DANGEROUS a thing like the Web Bot can be? Not only can those running it plug into the collective UNconscious of the entire human population–at least those who interact with the Internet–but they can MANIPULATE it. They could make people believe what they want them to believe by loading (as in loaded dice) the Internet with bogus or slanted news, opinions, rants, popularity polls, allegations, and outright lies containing keywords easily found by the major search engines (and listed first on the page).
The worst thing about this is that much of what is already being said on the Web is not necessarily TRUE or ACCURATE, or COMPLETE, but only what people think, believe, feel, fear, admire, or resent. This is how the power structure already works, and how the minds of easily-led adults–AND ESPECIALLY OF CHILDREN–can be turned in whatever direction the manipulators want them to go, and mostly by scaring them. (Although, the media and the public school system is already doing a pretty good job of that!)
Are you ready to have your chip implanted?

Or can you get off the train when you think you’re being railroaded?

 

Susan Boyle: Her Voice and the Dream She Dreamed

Even if you don’t watch “Britain’s Got Talent” on TV, if you’ve had a news channel on in the past week, you have heard of the newest singing talent phenomenon, Susan Boyle, and have seen at least a portion of her YouTube video from her Week 1 performance. If it didn’t bring tears of joy overflowing from your heart, then you have no heart, friend!
She seems to have appeared out of nowhere, but according to some accounts, she is well-known for singing in church and on Karaoke circuits in her native Scotland. She has had her own Channel on YouTube.com since 2007, created and maintained by her nephew, since she has said she does not have a computer–although it’s possible that she has one now! Wherever she gets access to the Internet, she does make occasional replies to the thousands of comments posted on pages showing videos about her.
A 47-year-old woman living in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, Susan is said to have taken care of her widowed “mum” until her death 2 years ago. But now, with her appearance on BGT, she will certainly get a recording contract, and we will be hearing much more from her. Good for her! She deserves it!
She has also pumped new life into the song, “I Dreamed a Dream”, written in 1980 by Claude-Michel Schönberg, with lyrics by Alain Boubil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Herbert Kretzmer. Still protected by International copyright, the purchased downloads of digital sheet music from online giant, Musicnotes.com, has surpassed downloads of “The Climb” from the recent Hannah Montana movie.
I must admit that when a friend asked me to help him find the lyrics and a soundtrack with which he could sing the song, I was swept up, myself. I had not seen the performance on TV, and had fallen asleep waiting for news video of it to come up on the news channel I was watching. But it didn’t take long to find it on http://www.youtube.com/SusanBoyle.

Recent interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZmcg0xEUU.

After listening to the song in every online version I could find, and copying the lyrics, I realized that “I Dreamed a Dream” is too complex to learn properly–and remember it–by that method. So I sprang for $4.95USD at www.musicnotes.com and printed out 6 pages of sheet music.
I can’t sing like Susan Boyle. But in the privacy of my home, I can dream a dream, and feel the joy of singing a beautiful song.
Go get ‘em, Susan Boyle! I’m in your corner!

 

GROW IT OR MOW IT!–a little rant about stubble

There is a trend among men between 18 and 30-something to sport a 3-to-

Eric McCormack

5-day growth of stubble on their faces. They apparently believe that this is proof of a hefty amount of testosterone being produced by adequately-sized “nads.” I really don’t know to whom they think this look is attractive. What woman wants to have her face scraped by this wiry growth? To me, a woman of 70, who frankly likes beards, a man with stubble on his face and ‘fashionably’ tousled hair, looks like he has just come off a weekend drunk, or has spent a week camping and got lost. Perhaps he wants to look like he was held hostage by terrorists? All he needs is food in his teeth and redolent B.O. to complete this disguise.

Hugh Laurie

I like “House”, but I wish he’d lose the brush! Stubble does not make a man look tough or heroic. In fact, most career military types are quite disciplined about the neat appearance of their hair and their personal hygiene. Actors who have boyish good looks into their 40’s, might start shaving with a hair-trimmer so that they can be considered for serious character roles or action movies, and for some, it works. But once they pass 40, as Brad Pitt has, the stubble makes them look tired and grubby, and they often look better in a moustache and well-trimmed beard.

Pitt & son-shabby retro chic

Pitt in goatee

Now, George Clooney, Noah Wyle, and Anthony Edwards could be excused for having a 5 o’clock (a.m.) shadow if they have been on duty in the ER for two days without rest. But Clooney, now nearing 50, can grow a luxuriant beard that any man would be proud of.

Clooney as Dr. Ross

 

Clooney with beard

Dick Van Dyke and Donald Sutherland have worn beautiful white moustache & beard combos when they hit their 70’s. But now the cycle completes as you see the elder statesmen of the stage and screen shave their faces clean, so that they can look more youthful!

Andy Griffith (Matlock)

 

Redford 2005

 

Donald Sutherland 2005

Ronald Reagan

I visited a site that has for 10 years been devoted to everything a man (or woman) needs to know about growing, styling, and caring for a beard. Here is a link to the page on growing one: http://www.beards.org/grow.php

 

TOO OLD TO TEXT

You know your 2-year contract is almost up when your cellphone provider sends you an offer for the latest fabulous phone with all the features “everyone” wants now. All you have to do to get it mailed to you free is add another line of service and commit to another 2-year contract.

Motorola Qwerty

While most kids and young adults can easily ‘text’ with a standard keypad, it’s OK if you can’t. They have phones with typewriter (QWERTY) keypads. You don’t want to carry around a calculator or appointment calendar? That’s cool–your phone can do that. You want to check your email or do your banking without lugging a laptop around? Your phone can do that, too. And of course, you can snap photos with the camera feature and send them to people. You don’t even have to wear a watch anymore.

On some phones, you can download music and short videos, and set your DVR at home. But who would want to do all that, and spend the money it takes to have access to all those features? Not me, certainly! However, I know one busy, tech-savvy career woman who travels a lot, and I have seen her gleefully shake her iPhone to come up with a map to a random restaurant location when I was with her in an unfamiliar city.

iPhone 3G

I don’t text. I have enough difficulty finding the numbers on the keypad, and it costs enough just to maintain phone service. I have trouble setting the time on my 4-button digital watch, though most men of any age can experiment with it for a few seconds and figure it out. And of course, a boy or girl of 8 or 10 would have no problem with it.