Misjudging a step or two on the stairway in the house...my son took a harsh stumble and ended up making a trip to the doctor this morning (12 hours after the fact). I might have gone to the emergency room last night, but that would be me making that decision.
I commented while on this drive over....things would be different in Alabama in this case. As a kid, in the old 'era'....you would have been given a fair bit of whisky to sip down, while relatives would have thrown a bale of hay into the back of some truck for you to lay on while driving to the county hospital. Four to six hunting dogs would have ridden with you in the rear, keeping you company.
Upon arriving at county 'general' hospital....some kind-hearted nurse gal (being a Baptist) would have done a prayer for you, then smelt your breathe with the whiskey and said it was the devil's work at hand. The doctor (WW II vet) would have looked over the x-ray and then wrapped you up in some 25-pound cast assembly.
But in this German reality? Well....you drive to some x-ray and bone guy (not the emergency room) and then sit and wait for three hours while they manage to find 12 minutes to do the x-ray and make some decision. Sitting in the waiting area are fifteen-odd folks who all seem to be hurting bad, and you sense their suffering at double the rate of your own.
There's not going to be any nurse gal to pray over you.
At the end of the day....the Alabama method of handling this situation might have been more understanding and peaceful (mostly because of the whiskey).
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Living in a Parallel World
If you sit and think about things:
You get up in the morning....go through some ritual....have your bacon and eggs...shower and shave....get dressed, and then you go to a corner near the door and pick up your Walther PPK pistol clip. Thirty years ago, you traveled safely to work....today, you are convinced that threats exist and the only way to survive each day....is to carry the Walther PPK with you. The fact that you might have to terminate some crazy 16-year-old kid who is all doped up on something and intending to kill six people at the gas station? Well....it's part of the parallel world that you live in and accept.
You've attended such-and-such church for forty years and never had to think beyond the Bible or some prophecies. Now you show up and there's chatter over climate change, your social behavior expectations, people criticizing others over their voting habits, and some suggestion that you might not be religious enough. Well....you quiet down....less chatter and refuse to engage in general conversation. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You work for a company where for years.....normal chatter was accepted, and over the past ten years.....political chatter has made you uncomfortable. It's to the point where you don't talk with people much or care about their families or woes. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You have relatives who you used to get with several times a year and enjoy conversations. Today? You avoid these meetings for the most part and you tend to stick with just sports, deaths in the family, or the weather. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You are in a decent marriage with someone that you generally cared about. Today? Politically, you don't match-up well with that person. You go to counseling and try to avoid talking politics or news. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
The list goes on and on.
This parallel world is like some science fiction piece from HBO....you are the alien guy who simply grins over things and tries to act cheerful.....but you survive only because you limit your actions and have accepted this parallel world as a doomed but last-resort place.
Something is wrong here, but you just can't figure out what it is.
You get up in the morning....go through some ritual....have your bacon and eggs...shower and shave....get dressed, and then you go to a corner near the door and pick up your Walther PPK pistol clip. Thirty years ago, you traveled safely to work....today, you are convinced that threats exist and the only way to survive each day....is to carry the Walther PPK with you. The fact that you might have to terminate some crazy 16-year-old kid who is all doped up on something and intending to kill six people at the gas station? Well....it's part of the parallel world that you live in and accept.
You've attended such-and-such church for forty years and never had to think beyond the Bible or some prophecies. Now you show up and there's chatter over climate change, your social behavior expectations, people criticizing others over their voting habits, and some suggestion that you might not be religious enough. Well....you quiet down....less chatter and refuse to engage in general conversation. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You work for a company where for years.....normal chatter was accepted, and over the past ten years.....political chatter has made you uncomfortable. It's to the point where you don't talk with people much or care about their families or woes. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You have relatives who you used to get with several times a year and enjoy conversations. Today? You avoid these meetings for the most part and you tend to stick with just sports, deaths in the family, or the weather. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
You are in a decent marriage with someone that you generally cared about. Today? Politically, you don't match-up well with that person. You go to counseling and try to avoid talking politics or news. That's the only way to survive in this parallel world that you accepted.
The list goes on and on.
This parallel world is like some science fiction piece from HBO....you are the alien guy who simply grins over things and tries to act cheerful.....but you survive only because you limit your actions and have accepted this parallel world as a doomed but last-resort place.
Something is wrong here, but you just can't figure out what it is.
Sunday, 16 September 2018
The Fake 2,975 Number
So how did the 25-to-50 death count in Puerto Rico get to 2,975?
Well....this is an interesting little story. The George Washington University public health school.....did a 'independent study' to reach the conclusion that the total number between September 2017 to Feb 2018.....was 2,975.
Actual names and death certificates? Well....NO.
They simply did a statistical average and arrived at a nice round number of 2,975.
Could another university do the same independent study and arrive at 4,080 or 2,088? Yes. That's the amusing part of the story.
So it's a college thesis project that got sucked into some national news story? More or less.
Is this even worth discussing? Not really.
Well....this is an interesting little story. The George Washington University public health school.....did a 'independent study' to reach the conclusion that the total number between September 2017 to Feb 2018.....was 2,975.
Actual names and death certificates? Well....NO.
They simply did a statistical average and arrived at a nice round number of 2,975.
Could another university do the same independent study and arrive at 4,080 or 2,088? Yes. That's the amusing part of the story.
So it's a college thesis project that got sucked into some national news story? More or less.
Is this even worth discussing? Not really.
Friday, 14 September 2018
A 19-Hour Flight?
In the next month, Singapore Airlines is going open up a NY City to Singapore route....non-stop. Hours involved? The experts say roughly 19 hours of airtime.
I sat and pondered upon this. You arrive at the airport....spend roughly three hours doing the bag-drag, ticket-counter, security check-out, and then sip through two beers while waiting for your boarding. Then you take off and spend nineteen hours in the air. Then you land....go through immigration, another bag-drag, ride the taxi over to the Singapore hotel, and sit down. Total hours? You can figure 26 hours minimum.
So how do you waste nineteen hours in the air? The longest flight I've ever taken in my life was Dubai to Sydney, with around 16.5 hours in the air. I wasted four hours at the very beginning watching two movies and munching through a fairly decent dinner. Then I sat at the bar (yes, they had an actual bar in the cabin) and sipped through two cocktails and a wine. Then I slept for six hours. I woke up....added up the hours, and realized that I still five more hours to go. So I went back, reviewed my 200 movies on the menu and found something to watch.
The problem with nineteen hours on your hand....is that you can only sleep about one-third of that. Boredom? You tend to get maxed out. Toss in the fact that sixty-percent of the passengers are in some cramped-up seating arrangement and begging for relief after ten hours.
Drinking your way through the nineteen hours? I can see a dozen-odd folks on each flight who will finish off six to eight wines, maybe a similar number of cocktails, and try to just blitz themselves to sleep. Course, you might wake up five hours in the flight, with some flight emergency going on, and suddenly realize you are too drunk to really care.
Will they even haven enough people to fly each day into Singapore? That's another question I'd be interested about.
Maybe this is a trend, but I'm kinda wondering how many people get all peppy and excited about nineteen hours in the air.....just one-way.
I sat and pondered upon this. You arrive at the airport....spend roughly three hours doing the bag-drag, ticket-counter, security check-out, and then sip through two beers while waiting for your boarding. Then you take off and spend nineteen hours in the air. Then you land....go through immigration, another bag-drag, ride the taxi over to the Singapore hotel, and sit down. Total hours? You can figure 26 hours minimum.
So how do you waste nineteen hours in the air? The longest flight I've ever taken in my life was Dubai to Sydney, with around 16.5 hours in the air. I wasted four hours at the very beginning watching two movies and munching through a fairly decent dinner. Then I sat at the bar (yes, they had an actual bar in the cabin) and sipped through two cocktails and a wine. Then I slept for six hours. I woke up....added up the hours, and realized that I still five more hours to go. So I went back, reviewed my 200 movies on the menu and found something to watch.
The problem with nineteen hours on your hand....is that you can only sleep about one-third of that. Boredom? You tend to get maxed out. Toss in the fact that sixty-percent of the passengers are in some cramped-up seating arrangement and begging for relief after ten hours.
Drinking your way through the nineteen hours? I can see a dozen-odd folks on each flight who will finish off six to eight wines, maybe a similar number of cocktails, and try to just blitz themselves to sleep. Course, you might wake up five hours in the flight, with some flight emergency going on, and suddenly realize you are too drunk to really care.
Will they even haven enough people to fly each day into Singapore? That's another question I'd be interested about.
Maybe this is a trend, but I'm kinda wondering how many people get all peppy and excited about nineteen hours in the air.....just one-way.
Bloomberg in 2020?
So the rumor has started out....Micheal Bloomberg (billionaire) might run on the Democratic ticket in 2020, against President Trump.
I would offer these six observations:
1. He'll have to develop a platform, and whether he likes it or not....it has to be combination of platform promises that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had in 2016. So folks might be expecting something new and different, but I just don't see how you'd get around the various factions of the Democratic Party without using the same 2016 'magic'.
2. From a primary review, and considering that at least a dozen Democratic candidates will be running....he's got problems in at least thirty states. If you used the core of southern states (Alabama, Georgia, La, Ark, Tenn and Kentucky).....I don't see him winning. In states like California? He might face stiff competition. In Iowa? I'm not sure if you'd find that much interest.
3. He would have to go and promise a continual business trend as in the effort of Donald Trump. The minute you suggest getting tough on business, commerce, and reversing the jobs trend.....you lose respect of the general public.
4. The black VP? Well, here's the thing.....in order to get some black voters to return (it's near 30-percent on blacks voting for Trump now).....you have to go and find this mythical black 'magnet' for independents to feel hyped up about. Corey Booker? Marginally fitting the description. Senator Harris from California? Almost a joke. You can virtually guarantee though....that it'll be a black VP candidate. Would this convince black voters to return to the safe Democratic candidate? No, I have serious doubts over that.
5. All of this primary business leading to no clear winner before the convention? I would suggest that you'd have three or four Democrats standing there with ten to fifteen states each. So the VIP leadership of the Democratic Party arranging things to fall into place? Maybe.
6. The odds that you'd have two other wild-card independent folks running in the 2020 election, against Bloomberg and Trump? Better than a 90-percent chance. I could see someone just putting a massive effort into winning Florida alone, instead of Trump or Bloomberg. You could easily be standing there in December 2020, with no one getting 270 votes, and this being a state-by-state battle in the House, to figure out the next President. This being intentionally designed by the mid-term wins here in 2018? Well....yeah, that's a possibility.
I would offer these six observations:
1. He'll have to develop a platform, and whether he likes it or not....it has to be combination of platform promises that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had in 2016. So folks might be expecting something new and different, but I just don't see how you'd get around the various factions of the Democratic Party without using the same 2016 'magic'.
2. From a primary review, and considering that at least a dozen Democratic candidates will be running....he's got problems in at least thirty states. If you used the core of southern states (Alabama, Georgia, La, Ark, Tenn and Kentucky).....I don't see him winning. In states like California? He might face stiff competition. In Iowa? I'm not sure if you'd find that much interest.
3. He would have to go and promise a continual business trend as in the effort of Donald Trump. The minute you suggest getting tough on business, commerce, and reversing the jobs trend.....you lose respect of the general public.
4. The black VP? Well, here's the thing.....in order to get some black voters to return (it's near 30-percent on blacks voting for Trump now).....you have to go and find this mythical black 'magnet' for independents to feel hyped up about. Corey Booker? Marginally fitting the description. Senator Harris from California? Almost a joke. You can virtually guarantee though....that it'll be a black VP candidate. Would this convince black voters to return to the safe Democratic candidate? No, I have serious doubts over that.
5. All of this primary business leading to no clear winner before the convention? I would suggest that you'd have three or four Democrats standing there with ten to fifteen states each. So the VIP leadership of the Democratic Party arranging things to fall into place? Maybe.
6. The odds that you'd have two other wild-card independent folks running in the 2020 election, against Bloomberg and Trump? Better than a 90-percent chance. I could see someone just putting a massive effort into winning Florida alone, instead of Trump or Bloomberg. You could easily be standing there in December 2020, with no one getting 270 votes, and this being a state-by-state battle in the House, to figure out the next President. This being intentionally designed by the mid-term wins here in 2018? Well....yeah, that's a possibility.
Thursday, 13 September 2018
A Puerto Rico Memorial
For a couple of weeks, I've heard this 'chatter' about 2,975 local folks in Puerto Rico had died from the hurricane business (instead of the couple dozen widely reported in the month after the event).
So I have this nifty idea. I think the Senators should get together and make a memorial-type statue in San Juan, and have all of the 2,975 names listed on the memorial.
Course, the question is.....is there actually a list of the dead folks? You know....the 2,975 folks?
It ought to be a big memorial.....worth at least 10-million in my humble opinion, and ought to have some fancy night-lights and maybe a scripture or two written on it to remember the folks who died.
So I have this nifty idea. I think the Senators should get together and make a memorial-type statue in San Juan, and have all of the 2,975 names listed on the memorial.
Course, the question is.....is there actually a list of the dead folks? You know....the 2,975 folks?
It ought to be a big memorial.....worth at least 10-million in my humble opinion, and ought to have some fancy night-lights and maybe a scripture or two written on it to remember the folks who died.
Google Talk
I sat and looked over political news this morning.....over how folks are hyped up over Google's executive talking after the November 2016 election, and how upset employees and managers were of the Hillary loss. At some meeting, the bosses even talked on how voters needed to be 'educated' or taught how to handle voting.
After the 1972 presidential election (a dismal defeat for McGovern, with almost 20 points separating him from Nixon)....a lot of the leadership were consumed with a pro-McGovern attitude, and started chatting about 'stupid' voters and how they needed to educate society on how to handle voting.
The thing that bothers me here....you see Google executives, along with those of Twitter and Facebook....resolved to some type of political games.
Would you expect that out of GM, Coke, Pizza Hut, Costco, or Honda? No.
If this kind of behavior were coming from the Kansas City Royals, Dallas Cowboys or Chicago Bulls? No, you wouldn't accept that either.
If this were Hollywood studios producing Marvel-theme movies related to politics or pro-Hillary type scenarios? No, you wouldn't accept that either.
Would it bother you if your burger chain was all hyped-up and attempted to be a pro-Hillary burger chain?
Would it bother you if your toilet paper makers were all hyped and attempted to be a pro-Hillary toilet paper company?
If I were holding stock with Google, Facebook or Twitter.....I'd be asking questions about work-time and political-time, and how this amounts to some kind of profit.
After the 1972 presidential election (a dismal defeat for McGovern, with almost 20 points separating him from Nixon)....a lot of the leadership were consumed with a pro-McGovern attitude, and started chatting about 'stupid' voters and how they needed to educate society on how to handle voting.
The thing that bothers me here....you see Google executives, along with those of Twitter and Facebook....resolved to some type of political games.
Would you expect that out of GM, Coke, Pizza Hut, Costco, or Honda? No.
If this kind of behavior were coming from the Kansas City Royals, Dallas Cowboys or Chicago Bulls? No, you wouldn't accept that either.
If this were Hollywood studios producing Marvel-theme movies related to politics or pro-Hillary type scenarios? No, you wouldn't accept that either.
Would it bother you if your burger chain was all hyped-up and attempted to be a pro-Hillary burger chain?
Would it bother you if your toilet paper makers were all hyped and attempted to be a pro-Hillary toilet paper company?
If I were holding stock with Google, Facebook or Twitter.....I'd be asking questions about work-time and political-time, and how this amounts to some kind of profit.
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